Death of Belarusian Foreign Minister fuels rumors of Putin’s coup plans Major Scandinavian visit to Kiev +++ Gazprom no longer cuts gas supply to Moldova

According to the Belarusian state news agency Belta, 64-year-old Uladzimir Makej, the country’s foreign minister, died on Saturday. Belta spoke of a “sudden death” without giving further details. There was no information about any disease until now.

Makej served as foreign minister of the authoritarian country for ten years and was one of the confidants of longtime ruler Alexander Lukashenko. Before becoming a minister, he headed Lukashenko’s presidential administration. Sometimes Makej was also traded as a possible successor to Lukashenko.

The Kremlin, Belarus’ closest ally, immediately expressed its condolences. “We are shocked by the reports of the death of the foreign minister of Belarus,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in Moscow.

However, some observers do not believe the Russian condolences, speculating instead about the background to Makej’s sudden death. Although he was always loyal to the ruler Lukashenko, he was less cooperative with Moscow. At the beginning of the year, he denied fears that Russia would send soldiers from Belarus to Ukraine. Shortly before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Matej had stated in February that “not a single” Russian soldier would remain in Belarus after joint maneuvers with Russia on the border with Ukraine.

Moreover, before the mass protests against the 2020 presidential election, Makej campaigned for the improvement of Belarusian relations with the West and criticized the Kremlin. However, after the wave of protests broke out, he changed course and accused the protesters in Belarus of being a campaign of Western agents.

Coup plans in the Kremlin?

Rumors of a possible Russian plot against Makej have been fueled by US thin tank Robert Lansing Institute for Global Threats (RLI) speculating on the Kremlin’s coup plans in Belarus just a day before Makej’s death. Referring to sources close to the Russian military leadership, RLI wrote that the Kremlin has had enough of Lukashenko and has decided on a radical solution to the problem of forcing Belarus to join the war against Ukraine.

However, in the RLI scenario, Lukashenko himself would be killed and replaced by Lieutenant General Stanislau Sas. Sas, currently secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization – a Russian-dominated military coalition – is said to be loyal to Moscow. According to the RLI, Lukashenko should at least be so intimidated by an attempted assassination that he will eventually order his troops to invade Ukraine.

Lukashenko’s relationship with big brother Russia is ambivalent. The 68-year-old dictator, who has effectively ruled Belarus since 1994, has allowed Russia to use Belarus as a staging area for the Russian army to attack Ukraine. Russian airstrikes are also carried out from Belarusian territory on Ukraine. So far, however, Lukashenko has not directly involved his approximately 40,000-strong army in the war, despite urging from the Kremlin, presumably for domestic political reasons, as participation in the war would be extremely unpopular with the population. (i.e)

With material from the SDA news agency.