Belarus Vs coronavirus: vodka first, football second

Belarus has centre stage, drawing the interest of any soccer fan from all over the world. The reason is simple: Belarus is the only country on the European continent that continues to play soccer throughout the coronavirus crisis. Why? Because Aleksandr Lukashenko, the president of the country and a man often referred to as the "last dictator in Europe," said so. (The other leagues still in action, for now, are Nicaragua, Turkmenistan, Burundi and Myanmar.

"[Coronavirus] is just any other psychosis, a good way to gain some people and damage others," he said last week. "The civilised world goes nuts. It is absolute stupidity to close nation borders. The panic can harm us more than the virus itself."

To add to that, he suggested that in place of panicking "like the ones in Western Europe," one have to have 40-50 grams of vodka daily, visit a banya [Russian sauna] two to 3 instances every week and hold working on a farm, as "difficult work and a tractor can treatment anything."