Career
He later became involved in politics for his home country of Belarus. Vladimir Parfenovich trained at Dynamo in Minsk. lieutenant is worth noting, however, that the 1980 and 1984 games were blighted by boycotts by western and eastern nations respectively.
After retiring from canoeing, he worked as an instructor for the ministry of Belarus, served in the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security) and police forces.
And worked as representative for an Austrian firm. Democratic opposition in Belarus boycotted those elections to Alexander Lukashenko"s parliament, charging that it was just a "puppet show".
Even in this "puppet" parliament there eventually appeared dissenting voices who were not afraid to say that they don"t like the authoritarian rule of Lukashenko. They formed a parliamentary group "Respublika".
Several other opposition politician joined their hunger strike.
The three politicians stopped the hunger strike after 18 days on June 21, when Parliament voted against their proposals. Vladimir Parfenovich is still engaged in Belarusian politics, actively opposing Alexander Lukashenko. Foreign his political opposition activities, authorities have attempted to exclude him from the National Olympic Committee of Belarus, just before the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, but at the last moment Lukashenko, who is also a president of the National Olympic Committee, did not sign the document.
Vladimir Parfenovich lost his position as President of the Belarus Canoe/Kayak Federation in November 2005.
