PRAGUE -- A former national basketball team captain who left Belarus under pressure after taking part in protests over the deeply disputed 2020 presidential election says she will press ahead with her efforts to unite Belarusians abroad against authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has been in power since 1994.
Speaking to RFE/RL's Belarus Service in Prague on July 11, Katsyaryna Snytsina said that she organizes basketball games for her compatriots living outside Belarus to unite them to reach "our common goal."
"It is easier for me to communicate with people through sports.... And I just wanted to show all the Belarusians that although there are no visual reports showing protests in Belarus now due to formidable repressions, there are tens of thousands of Belarusians across the world who continue to do something," Snytsina said.
"Now we are collecting materials to be issued on YouTube. My goal is to show people that tens of thousands of Belarusians keep on doing something," she said.
Snytsina quit the national team in March 2021, saying she could not represent the country while its citizens "are being tortured and oppressed and held in jails where they are being killed and crippled."
After Lukashenka was declared the winner of the August 2020 election, tens of thousands of Belarusians rallied for months, saying the poll was rigged. Snytsina joined thousands of Belarusian athletes who signed a petition at the time, calling the official results illegal.
SEE ALSO: Belarusian Protests Spill Off The Streets, Into The Sports ArenaLukashenka and the state security apparatus cracked down hard on protesters and the sweeping suppression of dissent continues nearly two years later.
The Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
Many Western countries have refused to recognize the official results of the vote and do not consider Lukashenka to be the country's legitimate leader. The United States, the European Union, and others have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Lukashenka's regime.
"We will certainly overcome. I am now on the team, and we will prevail for sure.... I am confident about that because I am doing something concrete, and people around me are making efforts every day," said Snytsina, who currently lives in a European Union country.
Talking about assistance provided by Lukashenka to Russia in its unprovoked and ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Snytsina said that the majority of Belarusians were against the war.
"For a posting in social networks, one can get years in prison. People made a choice as the repressions are underway, the war continues, and people are dying. There is no way back. You see everything clearly -- just black or white," she said.
"Either you are against the war and openly condemn it and flee the country. Or just flee the country. Or you keep everything inside you and stay in Belarus."
"The protest is my life now. My basketball life and protests are intertwined. I imagine that at some moment I will turn a corner and there will be the finish line, our victory," Snytsina added.
"I don't know where exactly we are on that road, but the most important thing is that we are moving on it towards our goal."