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SoMnFan -> RE: Wild 2019/2020 Season (4/2/2020 8:38:48 AM)
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MOSCOW — While officials from Montreal to Moscow have placed populations under some form of lockdown designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, one man continues to hold firm to the notion that the rest of the world has lost its mind: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
“It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees!” Lukashenko told a Belarusian television reporter Saturday when asked whether the coronavirus could stop him from hitting the rink for a propaganda-filled hockey game.
“Me? Why? I don’t understand. There is no virus here,” Lukashenko said, gesturing around the arena. “This is a refrigerator, it is the best thing for your health. Sport, especially on ice, is better than any antiviral medication. It is the real thing.”
Lukashenko, one of the longest-serving leaders in the former Soviet Union, has been in power for over 25 years. His tenure has seen brutal crackdowns on dissent.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
Both Lukashenko and his nation, Belarus, have played second fiddle to their much larger, and much more powerful neighbor: Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The two nations have a loosely controlled internal border and shared customs space — undermining his claims to sovereignty.
Lukashenko for weeks now has downplayed the threat of COVID-19. Instead of preparing his nation for the worst, he has routinely and openly questioned the world’s response to the virus, using the word “psychosis” to describe the global response several times since early March.
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