Ambassador of peace and best form of diplomacy. How Lukashenko made sport efficient policy (opens in new tab)

An important date in the NOC’s history was 15 May 1997. On that day the Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko was elected president of the National Olympic Committee. Three years before that, in 1994, at his first press conference as the head of state, when asked by a reporter about the future of sport in Belarus, he promised: “I will support sport.”