Ice Hockey World Championship in Belarus: Political Context

Abstract

The chapter claims that promotion of mass and elite sport has a special place in Lukashenka’s domestic policies, which made the 2014 Ice Hockey World Championship in Minsk a politically important event for the regime. The authors show how the Belorussian government uses sports to promote its domestic and international agenda and those aims which the state attains through hosting the World Championship. The chapter discusses different facets of politicization of this event.