Vladimir Makei

Vladimir Vladimirovich Makei (, be, Уладзі́мір Уладзі́міравіч Маке́й, ; 5 August 1958 – 26 November 2022) was a Belarusian politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus.

Early life and education

Vladimir Makei was born on 5 August 1958 in Hrodna voblast, Byelorussian SSR. He graduated from the Minsk State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages in 1980. He served in the Armed Forces of the USSR and in the Armed Forces of Belarus after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He retired in 1993 as a colonel.

Career

Makei served in the ministry as secretary of several departments: Information and Humanitarian Cooperation, Analysis and Forecast, Office of the Minister and State Protocol Service. From 1996—1999 he worked in the Belarusian embassy in Paris as a counselor. From 2008—2012 he was President Alexander Lukashenko's Chief of Staff. Since 20 August 2012 he had been Minister of Foreign Affairs.

During the 2020 Belarusian protests, Makei said at a meeting in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that everyone who disagrees with the state policy should leave the ministry. He also forbade the staff to participate in protest activities. Two employees who made a picket with blank sheets of paper were fired within a week (one of them told journalists that he was fired for "gross violation of his duties").
In February 2021, Makei accused diplomats of calling for unrest and posting "anti-state" information. On April 10, 2021, Makei threatened that civil society in Belarus “will cease to exist” in the case of tougher sanctions.

Mikalai Khalezin, director of Belarus Free Theatre, claimed that Makei was responsible for trying to discredit his theatre for Khalezin's anti-Lukashenko activities.
Pavel Latushko, former ambassador to France and Poland, claimed that Makei expressed anti-Russian views in front of European and American diplomats, but after the 2020 elections he made a volte-face. Valery Sakhashchyk, a former Belarusian military officer serving in the United Transitional Cabinet stated that Makei, though having been “deformed by years of service to Lukashenko”, was "undoubtedly some kind of bridge with the West".

Personal life

Makei spoke Belarusian, Russian, German, and English.

Death

Makei died in office on 26 November 2022, at the age of 64.
Makei was not known to have had a chronic illness, and Belarusian authorities did not state his cause of death. According to Nasha Niva he died of a heart attack. He was given a state funeral on 29 November 2022 which was attended by Lukashenko in the Central House of Officers; he was buried in Minsk's Eastern Cemetery.

Awards

* Order of Honor (Belarus, 2006)
* Order of the Fatherland, 3rd class (Belarus, 2018)

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Makei, Vladimir
1958 births
2022 deaths
21st-century Belarusian politicians
People from Karelichy District
Belarusian diplomats
Foreign ministers of Belarus
Permanent Representatives to the Council of Europe
Place of death missing
Soviet colonels