Editor's note

Latvian ice hockey player Kaspars Saulietis, who currently plays for the Kontinental Ice Hockey League's Minsk ''Dynamo'', has been offered Belarus citizenship, the newspaper Latvijas Avize/LETA reported today.

Saulietis, whose mother is Belarusian, was already offered to become a citizen of Belarus as a child, however, his family decided that he should have Latvian citizenship.

''They think of me as one of theirs and say that they will give me citizenship,'' Saulietis said. ''I have not given an answer yet. I would like to play for a national team, but I do not now for which country I would have the best opportunity.''

As the newspaper reports, Saulietis does not have the best of relations with the head coach of the Latvian national ice hockey team Olegs Znaroks, that is why he is not included as a candidate for the national team.