Uladzimir Parfenovich: It will only be getting worse

Belarusan economy will soon be undergoing sensitive time. What concerns sport industry, nothing will save it without serious change.

Such an opinion in the talk with the EuroBelarus Information Service shared three times Olympic champion Uladzimir Parfenovich.

An outstanding sportsman and former deputy of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus is now working for the interests of Russian sport for the fourth year already. The specialist, who is uncalled for political reasons in Belarus, now is a chief coach of the Russia kayak-paddling team, though he doesn’t lose touch with Belarus. He believes that the recent statements made by Aliaksandr Lukashenka, who claimed that from this time on Belarusan sportsmen will be paid only for results, are nothing but another portion of populist rhetoric: “I’ve heard nothing new in them, all the more that it is only football, hockey, and partially tennis, where windfall money exist, whereas all the other sports have for a long time been begging for money”.

According to Uladzimir Parfenovich, Belarusan sport, as well as Belarusan economy, can’t expect positive change in the near future: “Nothing will change for the better; it will only get worse. There are no preconditions for the positive change. How can we improve sport industry, if all the other spheres across Belarus are neglected?”

The head of the state enjoys talking about the faults in the sport industry, regularly promises to prune its budget and to severely punish all the guilty ones. Over the last two years he said that there will be “no windfall money” for no less than three times already. But isn’t it the head of the National Olympic Committee, which has, actually, been headed by the Belarusan President for a number of years, who is responsible for all the faults we see in sport? “First of all, I don’t call him the head of the state, but rather the manager, as the head of the state is chosen at the open and honest elections, - specifies Uladzimir Parfenovich. – And it is the leader of our country who is bearing personal responsibility; not even as the head of the National Olympic Committee, but as the head of the state. However, he will never blame himself; vice versa, everyone except himself is guilty”.

The distinguished sportsman and coach believes that in Belarusan sport community it is an open secret that “it is odd people, such as military men, staff officers, KGB officers, who are in charge of the Belarusan sport now; and this is the source of the problems. It's just inconceivable how many people we lost in the sport industry”.

The statements about the cut down on investment programs in sports for the future year haven’t been a surprise for Uladzimir Parfenovich. He is convinced that the tough economic situation won’t allow financing Belarusan sport to the former extent: “Previously Belarus somehow managed to support sport on a regular basis; however, new times are coming. We have to expect bigger and deeper decline, and no one can predict what is to become of it”.