Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei dies

The press secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry announced the death of Makei.Cause of diplomat's death not specifiedVladimir Makei

Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei has died, the Belarusian state agency BelTA reports, citing the press secretary of the ministry Anatoly Glaz.

“The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Vladimir Makei, died suddenly,” the statement said.

The reasons for the death of the diplomat are not specified. Makei was 64 years old.

Moscow is shocked by reports of the death of Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei, said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry. “In the near future, official condolences from the Russian Foreign Ministry will be published,” she added.

Vladimir Makei was born in 1958. In 1980 he graduated from the MINSK State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages, in 1993 - the Diplomatic Academy of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He spoke German and English.

From 1980 to 1993 he served in the Armed Forces of the USSR and Belarus. Since 1993, he has held various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus. He was Deputy HEAD of the State Protocol Service, represented the country at the Council of Europe. From 2000 to 2008 - assistant to the President of Belarus ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO. From 2008 to 2012 - Head of the Presidential Administration of Belarus.

He has held the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs since August 20, 2012. He had the diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Makei is married and has three children.

According to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, Makei held his last meeting the day before, on November 25, with the Apostolic Nuncio (diplomat of the Holy See), Archbishop Ante Jozich. The main topics of the conversation were the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Belarus and the Vatican, as well as the current situation of the Roman Catholic Church in the republic, the ministry said.

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Makei positively assessed the relations between Belarus and Russia. “The closest friendly fraternal relations exist between our countries. This is not bravado, not a statement for the sake of a statement. This is true,” he said in 2017.

In February 2020, amid disagreements with Moscow over the supply of Russian oil to Belarusian refineries, as well as an official visit to Belarus at that time by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Makei ruled out "friendship with the United States" against Russia. “Belarus has never been friends and will not be friends with someone at the expense of someone, to the detriment of someone or against someone,” the diplomat said.

Nevertheless, already in April 2020, Makei accused the Russian workers who came to the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant from Nizhny Tagil of bringing covid-19 to the republic , since all fifteen people were infected with it. In addition, the diplomat reproached Moscow for closing the borders at the beginning of the pandemic, which put "Belarusian colleagues in a difficult position."

After the presidential elections in Belarus in 2020, Makei admitted that they did not go “perfectly”, but he reproached EU representatives for interfering in the affairs of the republic. “We have had elections, albeit not ideally according to some high canons, but the people by their majority - it is difficult to doubt it today - determined their winner. I would like to understand on what basis the EU representatives put themselves on a par with the Belarusian people and consider themselves entitled to single-handedly pass verdicts on the acceptability of the election results for Belarusians,” the minister said.

He also said that after the start of unsanctioned protests in the republic, his colleague from the European Union, through SMS, suggested that he "go over to the side of the people." “One of my European colleagues wrote, SMS is stored somewhere in the phone: “Vladimir, you must go over to the side of the people. This is the decisive step. Others will follow you." And so on. The same has been said by some of the opponents here: if you pass, it will be like a domino effect. Other members of the government will follow you. And then the power will collapse, ”Makei argued.

In March of this year, after the imposition of tough sanctions against Belarus by the EU, Makei said that they "are aimed at the total destruction of the sovereignty and independence of Belarus, at undermining its statehood." “Western countries are absolutely not interested in observing at least some minimum limits of decency by imposing these sanctions . Laws change only in order to punish this or that country,” the diplomat emphasized.