Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir, who held this position for a long time, died suddenly. The news was announced on Saturday by the state news agency “Belta”. Mr Makei died on Saturday, two days before a meeting promised to take place on Monday between him and his Russian counterpart.
“Foreign Minister Vladimir Make passed away quite suddenly,” Belta announced without further details. Mr. Makei has held the post of minister since 2012.
Mr Makei, 64, attended a conference of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military alliance of several post-Soviet states, in Yerevan earlier this week and was due to meet his Russian counterpart on Monday. Sergey Lavrov.
Before presidential elections and mass anti-government protests in Belarus in 2020, Mr. Makei had been one of the initiators of efforts to improve Belarus’ relations with the West and criticized Russia.
A few days before the start of the war, Mr. Makei guaranteed that there would be no attack on Ukraine from the territory of Belarus. But a few days later, Russian troops proved otherwise.
“We are shocked by the announcements about the death of the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Vladimir Makei,” was written in a Telegram post by the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.
Condolences were also expressed by the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, who managed to survive the protests of 2020 and continues to be in power.
Commenting on this development, the leader of the opposition in exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, called Mr. Makei a traitor to the Belarusian people.
“In 2020, Makei betrayed the Belarusian people and supported tyranny. This is how the Belarusian people will remember him”, said Mrs. Tsikhanouskaya.