Belarus minister said he feared Putin would annex his country to Ukraine shortly before his sudden death last year, Finland reveals

A Belarusian minister said he feared Russia would annex his country after it invaded Ukraine shortly before his sudden death last year, Finland has revealed.

Vladimir Makei, the former foreign minister of the near-Russian country, died in November at the age of 64. An official cause of death was not given.

Now Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto has told how he spoke to Makei after Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally announced on September 30 that Russia had annexed four regions in Ukraine – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.

In an interview with Finnish tabloid Iltalehti published today, Haavisto said Makei, who has been in office since 2012, is “very worried that Belarus will become the fifth”.

The Finnish politician said he found Makei’s concern remarkable because, according to the Iltalehti report, Minsk officials appeared from the outside as “strong supporters of Russia in every respect”.

While Belarus was not directly involved in the 12-month invasion of Ukraine, autocratic leader Alexander Lukashenko allowed Moscow troops to use his country as a launch pad for the first attack on February 24, 2022.

Belarus has also allowed Russia to use its country for military exercises and has threatened Ukraine with a response if Belarusian territory is attacked. .

Haavisto said that as he discussed Russia’s potential ambitions, Makei began to sweat, and he said there was no telling who would find himself next in the crosshairs of Putin’s imperialist ambitions.

Last week, a group of journalists published a report that seems to indicate that Makei’s concerns are not unfounded.

The document claimed to have received leaked presidential documents showing that Russia allegedly plans to annex Belarus and incorporate it into the Russian Federation by 2030.

The secret dossier, said to be dated summer 2021, was titled “Russian Federation’s Strategic Objectives in Belarus” and outlined three possible approaches – short, medium and long term – to turn Belarus into a piece of “historic Russia”. do to annex it. .

According to the medium-term plan, Belarus should officially become part of Russia as early as 2025, while the long-term plan envisages a seven-year time frame from 2023.

The plans were reportedly drawn up by Russia’s presidential directorate for cross-border cooperation – a government department created by Putin in 2018 – and published by Yahoo! News and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko shows an invasion map of Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Lukashenko during a meeting at the state residence Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow on February 17

If verified as authentic, the documents would confirm that Putin has instructed Russian intelligence and the Russian armed forces to prepare for the annexation of another country, even as his armies struggle to make significant gains in Ukraine.

But the despot’s desire to take control of both Belarus and Ukraine would come as little surprise and suggest that Makei was right to be concerned.

Haavisto said he had been in contact with Makei since the beginning of the war because he wanted to understand what Belarus thought about Russia and its invasion.

“It is worth following, because although support for Belarus seems to be very active, there is a kind of caveat,” he told the tabloid.

He pointed out that Belarus has stated that it supports Russia in any way it can, but does not join the conflict as an interesting contradiction.

“It sends a double message that is quite interesting, and at least Belarus has not yet joined the most active hostilities across the border,” he said.

Makei himself was the subject of a report last week that claimed the Belarusian politician had committed suicide days after returning from a meeting with Kremlin officials in Armenia.

According to independent Belarusian media outlet Nasha Niva, citing four independent sources, Makei’s friends said he was “painfully upset by the collapse of the course he is walking”.

Lukashenko wanted to replace his chief diplomat, who had been in service for more than a decade. As Lukashenko approaches Putin, it becomes clear that Makei wanted to strengthen his country’s relations with the West.

“Lately he has been denied personal attention [from Lukashenko]”, a colleague of Makei is quoted anonymously in the report. “It was very tangible for him.”

Another said the minister understood his position was coming to an end and he felt increasingly “unnecessary” and “out of place”.

The report claims that seven months before his death, Makei said: “I don’t remember who said it, but if you’re going to be executed, it’s better to be executed for loyalty than for treason.”

It added that those close to him do not believe he was killed.

Lukashenko attended his funeral on 29 November. Photos show the dictator standing over his open coffin and squeezing his arm.

Moscow did not send Makei’s Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to the funeral.

Lukashenko will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing today

The Finnish foreign minister’s revelation came as Lukashenko told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping his country “fully supports” Beijing’s proposals to end the war in Ukraine when the two leaders met today.

The state visit by Lukashenko – a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin – to the Chinese capital comes after Beijing released a position paper on Moscow’s war in Ukraine, in which he insisted on being a neutral party and called for have on dialogue.

Western countries have criticized China for not condemning Moscow’s invasion of Moscow, while Beijing has reacted angrily to recent claims by the United States and NATO that it is considering arms sales to Russia.

The position paper has been met with skepticism by Ukraine’s allies, while Russia recognizes the proposal but says the conditions for a peaceful resolution to the conflict are not in place “at the moment”.