by Alberto Zanconato
A trustee of the President Alexander Lukashenko, an experienced diplomat capable of defending the alliance with Russia but trying to keep channels of dialogue open with the West. A complex figure – and symbolic of his country’s predicament – that of Vladimir Makeithe Belarusian Foreign Minister died suddenly at the age of 64 in the middle of the Ukraine conflict. No official explanation was given as to the causes of death, prompting an immediate flurry of hypotheses and conflicting responses.
“There are rumors that he may have been poisoned,” she immediately wrote on Twitter Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The reason would be that Makei was “seen as a possible successor to Lukashenko” and “one of the few not under Russian influence,” adds Gerashchenko, a figure who has been criticized in the past by Ukrainian journalists and human rights activists for his support for Myrotvorets An anonymous database compiling blacklists of more than 4,000 unwelcome Ukrainian and foreign reporters, complete with phone numbers and addresses, was attacked. The exiled leader of the Belarusian opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, called Makei “a traitor” for his staunch support in 2020 for a crackdown on protests over Lukashenko’s controversial re-election to the presidency, which he believed were inspired by the West. “Makei betrayed the Belarusian people and supported tyranny, so the Belarusian people will remember him,” said Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko, the Belarusian agency Belta laconically let it know, offered his condolences to Makei’s family and friends, while in the first Reaction from Moscow the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria SakharovHe said Russian leaders were “shocked”.
And the Russian embassy in Minsk spoke of an “irreparable loss”. In two days the head of Belarusian diplomacy should have met the Foreign Minister from Moscow, Sergey Lavrov. The announcement of Makei’s disappearance comes on the same day that Ukrainian media published claims by an American research center about the Russian president Wladimir Putin he would have a plan to launch an attack or a mock attack on Lukashenko to intimidate him and thus urge him to intervene directly with his troops alongside Moscow in Ukraine. A plan that could be put into practice as early as the next few days, says the Robert Lobert Lansing Institute, which presents itself as a research organization that aims to “pledge the Euro-Atlantic capabilities to counter hybrid operations and respond to emerging threats improve to achieve strategic goals”. Gerashchenko therefore spoke in his Twitter post of a possible “warning” against Lukashenko.
Although Minsk is linked to Moscow by close political, economic and military agreements, it has so far refrained from direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict. Since the end of October, however, the two countries’ troops have begun a joint deployment on Belarusian territory, which envisages the deployment of about 9,000 Russian soldiers, weapons and Mig-31 jets to form the first core of a planned integrated force based on the bilateral agreements on the State of the Union. Belarus is therefore trying to maintain a difficult balance in order to protect its national interests as well. And the appearances of his foreign minister on the international stage bear witness to this. Makei, a close associate of Lukashenko since 2000, then his chief of cabinet and finally chief of diplomacy since 2012, has staunchly defended Russia’s motives for justifying its military operation in Ukraine. But last September, when he was in New York for the UN General Assembly, in an interview with France 24, he said Minsk was also interested in keeping communication channels “open” with Europe and pledged the EU as “a good commercial”. define and business partners”. Referring to Ukraine, he reiterated the need to “end the conflict as soon as possible” through diplomatic channels.