European Games in Minsk: Scandal with Kosovo, failed meeting between Putin and Zelensky
On the evening of June 21, while the Russians were discussing the results of the direct line with Putin, the newly rebuilt Dynamo stadium in Minsk was hosting its own event, for which Belarus had been preparing for many years - the XNUMXnd European Games started.
As for the athletes themselves, they just want to wish them new records, fair victories and fewer scandals, which, unfortunately, during such large-scale sporting events, have increasingly begun to overshadow the sport itself.
But big sport is also big politics. In the 21st century, this statement is truer than ever. Let's talk about the political component of the holiday.
Alexander Lukashenko and the head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry naturally considered the choice of Minsk as a site for the Games to be one of the most important successes of Belarusian foreign policy in recent years. There was also some luck.
At first it was assumed that the Netherlands would host the athletes, but the pragmatic Dutch calculated the debit and credit and decided that they had no use for the games.
Russia was next in line - in November 2015 it was decided to hold the games in Kazan and Sochi. Then politics intervened again - the infamous doping scandal broke out suspiciously simultaneously with the decision to hold the games in Russia. As a result, the right to host the games was taken away from Russia and given to Belarus.
Such an open opposition between Belarusians and Russians by international sports officials did not bother anyone in the Minsk government offices, the Belarusian side accepted the proposal, and Minsk began to prepare for the games.
The Belarusian authorities, especially the “European party,” had their own plans for sports competitions - to improve the perception of the country in the West, to emphasize their Europeanness, to demonstrate their significance by gathering the maximum possible number of top officials of European states in the VIP box of the stadium.
It would be especially successful to tie something peacekeeping to the European Games. After all, the status of “donor of regional security”, so beloved by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry and local propaganda, has already faded considerably and urgently needs confirmation.
The first meeting of Presidents Putin and Zelensky could be such confirmation. Both heads of state were invited to Minsk for the opening ceremony. However, as was obvious, the meeting did not take place.
Lately, Putin doesn’t really like to travel to Belarus at all, let alone to do it in order to attend the games taken away from Russia and communicate with a person who has already unsuccessfully announced where the negotiations will begin... Zelensky, in turn, also decided that it was somehow not fun for him to fly to Minsk and canceled the visit, citing being busy.
The number and composition of presidents who expressed their intention to attend the opening ceremony of the games looked rather modest, becoming a cold shower for Lukashenko - in fact, no one from the European Union was even going to come.
Only Serbian leader Vucic, Moldovan President Dodon, Georgian Zurabishvili and Azerbaijani leader Aliyev confirmed their participation.
But even that many presidents were not on the podium. After the outbreak of mass unrest in Tbilisi, Zurabishvili was forced to leave Minsk; Aliyev, for some reason, canceled the visit, sending his daughter Leila in his place.
It’s not a pretty story with President Vucic. Shortly before the opening, he held a meeting with Lukashenko, which was held in a rather positive manner. The Serbian president even thanked his Belarusian colleague for his position on Kosovo.
However, in the evening, the same Vučić defiantly did not go to the stadium, where, among others, the delegation of the “Republic of Kosovo” was present. The informal leader of the Republika Srpska, a member of the Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, did the same, who defiantly left the box for honored guests during the ceremonial passage of a team of athletes from the so-called “Kosovo”.
It is clear that the participation of separatists from an unrecognized state was imposed by the IOC, into which this state entity was accepted 5 years ago. But it’s still awkward in front of the Serbs.
In general, Minsk’s foreign policy bet on the European Games did not work. Despite all the colorfulness of the ceremony, at which Belarus also diligently demonstrated its Europeanness, it failed in its political tasks - it was not possible to prove itself as a peacemaker - there was simply no one with whom. Demonstrate yourself as a significant participant in European politics, too.
European Games in Minsk : Kosovo Scandal, Failed Putin-Zelensky Meeting