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KHL All Star Game takes place this Saturday January 30th in Belarus, Minsk. Alexander Lukashenko, the current president of Belarus, apparently is a big hockey fan! He even plays himself!

He is also known as the last dictator of Europe! He has been in power at least since i left Belarus in 1996. That’s 14 years, at least! He is known for controlling the media, suppressing his opposition, secret police such as KGB, and using questionable tactics to remain in power, such as abolishing the constitution’s two-term presidential limit in 2004 elections. While Belarus is in deep economic recession, Lukashenko does not limit funding to build “Ice Castles” all over Belarus, such as Minsk Arena built in 2006, which will host this years KHL All Star Game. This was always the case in USSR, while most of the country was piss poor the capital, Moscow, was dressed in gold. I guess USSR and former republics were always big on their international image.

Anyway, this years KHL game is being hosted in Minsk, Belarus. Last game took place, no where else but on the world famous Red Square, right in front of Kremlin.

Some familiar faces were on ice. One of the most notable and relevant to this blog is Jaromir Jagr. His team won 7:6 aganst team Yashin. Tretiak was present at the game pictured above. So was Marcel Hossa pictured below wearing #81, apparently younger brother of Marian Hossa.

This year everything is pretty much the same. The teams were picked out through voting. Two teams were picked out … Russian team lead by Yashin whose roster looks like this:

Team Yashin (Russian stars)

Goalkeepers: Georgy Gelashvili (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl); Andrei Mezin (Dynamo Minsk)

Defenders: Sergei Zubov (SKA St. Petersburg); Ilya Nikulin (Ak Bars Kazan); Dmitriy Kalinin (Salavat Yulaev Ufa); Anton Babchuk (Avangard Omsk); Konstantin Korneev (CSKA Moscow); Vitaly Atyushov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk)

Forwards: Alexei Yashin (SKA St. Petersburg); Alexander Radulov (Salavat Yulaev Ufa); Alexei Morozov (Ak Bars Kazan); Danis Zaripov (Ak Bars Kazan); Sergei Fedorov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk); Sergei Mozyakin (Atlant Mytischi); Alexei Tereschenko (Ak Bars Kazan); Sergei Zinoviev (Salavat Yulaev Ufa); Denis Parshin (CSKA Moscow)

Versus International team lead by Jaromir Jagr … with the following roster:

Team Jagr (International Stars)

Goalkeepers: Karri Ramo (Avangard Omsk); Michael Garnett (HC MVD)

Defenders: Kevin Dallman (Barys Astana); Sandis Ozolinsh (Dinamo Riga);Martin Strbak (HC MVD); Lasse Kukkonen (Avangard Omsk); Karel Rachunek (Dynamo Moscow); Jaroslav Obsut (Spartak Moscow)

Forwards: Jaromir Jagr (Avangard Omsk); Marcel Hossa (Dinamo Riga); Mattias Weinhandl (Dynamo Moscow); Patrick Thoresen (Salavat Yulaev Ufa); Josef Vasicek (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl); Chris Simon (Vityaz Chekhov); Jiri Hudler (Dynamo Moscow); Ville Peltonen (Dinamo Minsk); Jozef Stumpel (Barys Astana)

KHL has really out done itself this year and actually created official website available in two languages Russian and English. For more information on KHL All Star Game and more cool pictures please visit http://www.khlallstar.ru/en/

LETS GO TEAM JAGR!!!

With Olympic games just around the corner … team Belarus will be present. Wearing Red, Green and White colors. Here is a picture …

The colors come from Belarussian flag which was adopted during USSR era … here is the flag

However, this is not the original Belarussian flag, in fact when USSR broke apart Belarus adopted their old flag which was White, Red, and White. However, once Lukashenko came to power he changed the flag back. In fact there are tons of activists in Belarus that oppose Lukashnko and his dictatorship and want to bring our old flag back, which is part of our history. One such person is Sergei Kovalenko (Сергей Коваленко).

On Jan 7th 2010, in Vitebsk on square of Victory in Belarus, he climbed 35 meter (over 100 feet) Christmas tree and hung the old Belorussian flag above the old soviet-looking star. This is just one way that people are trying to fight Lukashenko’s dictatorship. Here are some pictures!

Sergei was arrested, beaten, and interrogated for 3 days. He is facing up to 6 years in jail. If you know how to read in Russian .. enjoy this story here http://charter97.org/ru/news/2010/1/12/25305/

LETS GO BELARUS!!!