Lukashenko appointed Makei number two at the head of the Foreign Ministry

Frankly, after Makei’s death, I, like many in Belarus, had hopes for quick and dramatic changes in the republic’s foreign policy. There were many prerequisites for this - from the total bankruptcy of the multi-vector foreign policy of the tenth, which ended in an attempted rebellion, which took place not without the help of pro-Western liberals lured by the late minister - to the presence of strong and promoted pro-Russian candidates and the position of Makei himself, who in recent months was clearly not in favor.

However, hopes were not destined to be justified - from the entire personnel deck, Lukashenko pulled out a card of the same suit as Makei. The ministerial chair was taken by former Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Aleynik.

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The diplomatic school at the Austrian Foreign Ministry alone in the biography of both speaks volumes. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus was left without its own diplomatic school and a sufficient number of trained personnel. Austrian “well-wishers” offered to help with personnel training, and the pro-Western nationalists and liberals who ruled Belarus at that time gladly accepted this offer. Then the deal seemed mutually beneficial - the ruling Westerners received contacts for contacts with the Austrian and other establishments, and their Western “partners” were essentially legalized agents of influence.

But, if during the time of the Russophobe Shushkevich this was appropriate and logical, then the rise of the multi-vector “Austrians” under the pro-Russian Lukashenko positioning himself raises many questions.

_{In addition to the Diplomatic School at the Austrian Foreign Ministry at the start of his career, the newly minted minister’s history includes the positions of consul in The Hague, charge d’affaires in the Netherlands, permanent representative of Belarus to the UN office in Geneva, ambassador in London and the Vatican. In general, a complete gentleman's set of gentlemen shaking hands in Western capitals. There is no doubt about the foreign policy sympathies of a character with such a track record.}

Aleynik does not have Makeev’s charisma and, unlike his predecessor, who was public and ambitious to the point of vanity, does not strive to be in the public eye and create noisy news feeds. You should not expect high-profile initiatives and extraordinary decisions from him. After Makei, Aleinik may seem boring, but it would be a big mistake to consider him lightweight. The new minister has enormous diplomatic experience, the lion's share of which was in the Western direction. Since joining the Hague consulate in 1995, he has held important positions in this area with a short break from 1999-2002, when he was head of the protocol service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Key points in Aleynik’s career geography are the Vatican and London. He was appointed concurrently as Ambassador to the Holy See and the Order of Malta in November 2002, and remained so until yesterday. During these 20 years he was Ambassador to London for 7 years and was Under-Minister twice for a total of 6,5 years, but even during this time he retained the post of Ambassador to the Vatican. Truly an irreplaceable shot.

The significance of Aleynik can be evidenced by the fact that during this time Lukashenko met with the Pope twice, in 2009 and 2016, and each time such a meeting marked another warming between Lukashenko and the West. Even after the 2020 elections and the expulsion from Belarus of the head of local Catholics, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, who too clearly supported the opposition, relations between Minsk and the Vatican were not frozen.

_{Maintaining his position in the Vatican, in 2013 Aleynik was sent to London to establish contacts in the center of global Russophobia. By the way, the date of his return from there is curious. Aleinik returned to Minsk to serve as Makei’s first deputy on July 20, 2020, at the very moment when Lukashenko was looking for “Wagnerites” in the Belarusian forests and was clearly preparing to turn to the West. His appointment was a noticeable strengthening of the Western vector of Belarusian foreign policy.}

Today, introducing the new minister to his subordinates, Belarusian Prime Minister Golovchenko tried in his parting words to compensate for the impression of the appointment by saying that “the ink on the decree of the head of state had not yet dried when insinuations began that Belarus was looking for ways to the West through the appointment of a new minister.” , adding that it would be better if the West looked for ways to reach us.

I will not dispute rhetoric in the spirit of “Mohammed and the Mountain,” time will tell. But the appointment of such an openly pro-Western character could not but give rise to such “innuendos.” The place of the open and convinced Westerner Makei was taken by no less a Westerner. The vector of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry will not change with his arrival. Most likely, the style of work will change. The charismatic, loud and arrogant Makei was replaced by a man accustomed to being in the shadows and acting without attracting too much attention, but at the same time having extensive connections in the West.