Mikhail Babich, a former ambassador of Russia to Belarus, has already left Minsk, news agency RIA Novosti reports with reference to the diplomatic mission.
Chargé d’Affaires Vladimir Andreyev will perform the duties of the head of the embassy until the newly-appointed ambassador arrives.
On April 30, Mikhail Babich was relieved from the post of Russian envoy in Minsk, which came as a surprise. On the same day, it became known that Dmitry Mezentsev would replace him.
Babich was a KGB officer in the Soviet times; under Putin’s rule he started serving in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). In August 2018, he was appointed not only Ambassador of Russia, but also Vladimir Putin‘s special representative in Belarus. His objective was to bring integration to a new level, both in the economic and political field. The Belarusian authorities apprehensively welcomed Babich. But in less than a year, the envoy was recalled.
Mikhail Babich is notorious for having a hand in the Crimean issue; he manned the embassy in Minsk with the people who were involved in the annexation of the peninsula. Unlike its predecessor Alexander Surikov, Babich demonstratively paid visits to Belarusian enterprises, engaged in controversies against the Belarusian Foreign Ministry and even president Lukashenka.
Babich’s actions in the field of information fuelled the new crises in the Belarusian-Russian relations.
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