Belarus athlete leaves Japan on Vienna-bound flight

Have a good flight. Good job J government!

I'd ask the pilot to fly around Russia just to be safe.

Good for her, and I hope she gets full protection there, good luck.

Well Done JAPAN, congratulations on making the right decision.

Well done, J cops and bravo, Poland.

Ageed. Well done to both Japan and Poland, especially with the belarusian activist being found hanged in a park yesterday.

There's clearly something very bad going down there at the moment.

I wish her all the best and glad to see how Poland was brave enough to protect a human from a dangerous dictatorship like the one of Lukashenko.

Japan could learn a lot from Poland.

Good for her, good for freedom-loving Poland.

Brilliant job by Japanese police and government in handling this. They knew sending her back to totalitarian, Russia-loving Belarus was effectively a death sentence.

She is right to be frightened.

And will not be out of danger even in Poland.

Vitaly Shishov, a Belarus activists in exile in Ukraine disappeared the day before yesterday and was found yesterday hanged in a park near his home in Ukraine.

Police say it was murder.

But it seems we have a new member that seems quite willing to defend this murder the Belarus dictator, Putin and the CCP.

Brilliant job by Japanese police and government in handling this. They knew sending her back to totalitarian, Russia-loving Belarus was effectively a death sentence.

I am not so ready to heap praise on the Japanese government, ( the police seemed to have do their job correctly).

Had Poland not offered to take her and with Japan's record of refusing 99.% of refugee claims, had no other country offered to take her, the chances are Japan would have eventually tried to drive her to go back.

All we have to do is look at the Myanmar diplomats here in Japan after the coup.

They represented the ousted elected government of which most had been arrested by the coup leaders.

These diplomats and embassy workers are right to fear going back but Japan originally refused their request to stay and in the end only because of bad publicity relented and permitted them to remain for 6 months while they try and find some place that will take them

If they managed to murder that guy in the park in Ukraine, they can surely get to her too. Scary.

i am sure that world will never heard about her again.show time is over.

Yeah? And guess what would have happened to her if she was forced to return to totalitarian, ex-Soviet state Belarus?

Execution, thats what.

Let's hope Belarus doesn't hijack her airliner like they did a few months ago to illegally abduct an anti-government activist.

Well done. A direct flight to Poland would have been too risky with such dictators around

not_vaccinatedToday  12:34 pm JST

Well done. I hope she chooses not to get vaccinated - cause that stuff is more dangerous than a Belarusian dictator

Ah the anti vaxxers, they never let an opportunity to spread their fake information go by!

There's clearly something very bad going down there at the moment.

Nations left the USSR, but some 'leaders' of nations that had been in the USSR cannot leave the tactics of USSR leaders behind. Same authoritarian mind set.

I feel bad for people who believe in proper democracies but are stuck living behind what once was the Iron Curtain, nations especially with 'leaders' like Lukashenko who want to continue having iron-fisted control over people.

Knock wood, the woman's plane will not be diverted along the way.

Hats off to Japan and Poland!

She is a very small fish. She made her coaches angry not fearless leader.

The 24-year-old had been expected to take a direct flight to Warsaw but switched at the last minute, an airport official told reporters.

The sprinter declined to speak to the media at the airport.

Yeah you just reported her actions to the dictatorship she's trying to get away from. The media are the enemy at the moment

Have a happy life in your new land.

All because she decided to throw a tantrum over not wanting to compete...

Tsimanouskaya sought protection from Tokyo 2020 officials on Sunday, claiming she was being forced to return to Belarus,

She uses the Olympics to get refugee status in the West, something that usually 3rd world participants do. Completely misguided, as Belarus is authoritarian, but not a regime one needs to escape from. However, the globalists that dominate the EU will give her the visa.

Fighto!

Yeah? And guess what would have happened to her if she was forced to return to totalitarian, ex-Soviet state Belarus? Execution, thats what.

Only in your phantasy. In real life, she would be sanctioned and fined, but "execution"? Good grief. Belarus is not North Korea.

Only in your phantasy. In real life, she would be sanctioned and fined, but "execution"? Good grief. Belarus is not North Korea.

Really, illegally forcing a international flight to land in violation of all agreements, to remove a regime critic. Murder of Vitaly Shishov in Ukraine just the other day.

And the list goes on.

was wondering why everyone was publishing the flight she was going to be on,...smart to change it at the last minute, but still risky of interception, although that would cause major international outrage toward belarus

still, there will be people waiting and watching her in vienna, tracking her every move to poland. she will have to keep eyes in the back of her head for a long time, hope that everyone supporting her move to poland can be trusted!

staunch critic of Lukashenko's regime and has become home to a growing number of dissidents.

is poland really so 'anti belarus'? or are they just putting their hand up for her sporting talents to make their own? good luck to her either way

That’s all bs. She’s there still in full and easy reach of agents in that whole area. Vienna, Berlin, other capitals, of course Ukraine and Poland as geographical neighborhood. Everything is full of Lukashenko’s or Putin’s state security agents there. You need quite an effort not to run into them on a daily basis in all bigger cities. lol They have of course full reach and equipment within the former iron curtain and of course, although a bit less, also in whole Western Europe. They will now just let play the time for them. One day she’ll feel safe and then something unexpected happens. Half a year, three years, who knows. But it’s quite sure that they won’t forget the case, however cold it might seem in the future.

Congratulations! Just make sure the pilot doesn’t get a force landing in Belarus.

And there was another unexpected twist on Wednesday, when the athlete made a last-minute switch and decided not to board her flight to Poland, which has offered her a humanitarian visa, instead taking a plane bound for Vienna.

I don’t think that I have ever done this at an airport.

Ms Tsimanouskaya certainly seems to change her mind often…

@Matej - I hope that we don't hear about her again until she represents Poland at the next Olympics after she is granted a passport. At least we know she is safe.

Good luck to her.

Interesting the BBC carefully avoided mentioning what flight or destination she changed to.

Anyone who thinks she would not face much punishment back in Belarus either hasn’t been following what is going on there or is a paid shill. Such countries and leaders can not permit any action or words that can even be construed as criticism. She probably would not face death but there are plenty of ways oppressive regimes can make life difficult and they don’t have to stick to the truth so “suddenly” discovered evidence of fraud or some other excuse could lead to a long prison sentence.

The irony is neither she nor her husband were political, she only sought to escape when her counties authorities became a danger to her!