Belarus Sprinter’s Defection Sheds Light on a Dictator’s Levers of Control

Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, and authoritarian leaders before him, have used sports as a propaganda tool. But defections have had a long history of puncturing their aura of invincibility.

source https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/world/europe/Olympic-belarus-sprinters-defection-kristina-timanovskaya-lukashenko.html