Sport and politics will collide when Belarus co-hosts the 2021 ice hockey World Cup

Months of protests over the election of Alexander Lukashenko did nothing to deter Rene Fasel, the president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, writes David Harding

Hand in hand: Lukashenko, left, greets Fasel (Reuters)

Ice hokey and international politics rarely mix, but in 2021 they will.

The sport's World Cup will be played in May and June and one of the co-hosts is Belarus, the country where there has been five months of protests since the presidential election was stolen by Alexander Lukashenko.

In the time since the election, the apparent winner Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has fled into exile in Lithuania, there have been 33,000 arrests, 1,000 cases of torture, and scores of political prisoners remain in jail.