The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Vladimir Mackay, has died

Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Mackay has died suddenly at the age of 64, the country’s Belta news agency reported.

Mackay has been head of Belarusian diplomacy since 2012.

In the middle of the week he had attended the meeting of the Collective Defense Treaty Organization – a military alliance of several former Soviet republics – in Yerevan. On Monday he was scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Yesterday Friday he met with the Apostolic Nuncio in Minsk, Archbishop Ande Jozic, according to the ministry’s website.

Ahead of the 2020 presidential election and massive anti-government protests, Mackay was one of the pioneers of efforts to improve Belarus’ relations with the West, while criticizing Russia. However, he abruptly changed his stance when the protests began, saying they were being instigated by Western agents.

“We were shocked by the reports of the death of the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Vladimir Makei,” the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said via Telegram.