Epistus and exile

Vladimir Putin dismissed Mikhail Babich from the posts of the ambassador in Belarus and the special representative of the development of trade and economic cooperation with Belarus, according to the Kremlin website.

A member of the Federation Council Dmitry Mezentsev was appointed a new ambassador.

Mezentsev presents in the Federation Council the executive branch of the Sakhalin Region from January 1, 2016, its senatorial powers expire in September 2019.

In 1991-1996, Mezentsev headed the Print and Medias of the St. Petersburg Media, at the same period, the Committee on External Relations of the City Hall was headed by Vladimir Putin. In 1996, he became Deputy Chairman of the State Public Print. In November 1999, Mezentsev took the post of president of the Center for Strategic Development, which provided Putin’s election campaign in 2000. In 2002-2009 he was a representative of the administration of the Irkutsk region in the Federation Council. In 2009-2012, Mezentsev led the Irkutsk region. From January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2015 he was the Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

On the upcoming review of Babich on the same day, Kommersant reported . According to the newspaper, the resignation of the ambassador was the result of repeated requests from Lukashenko addressed to Putin. According to Kommersant, Putin and Lukashenko’s last conversation took place in Beijing: the Belarusian president assured the Russian colleague that he was ready to start the integration of the two countries, but again asked Babich to withdraw.

“Putin agreed, gave Lukashenko a year, promising not to intervene in the inner Belarusian agenda,” the source of Kommersant says.

As previously reported by RBC, Babich’s activities were unhappy in the Russian Foreign Ministry. “Babich achieved the status of the president’s special representative, which gave him a direct access to the president and his administration. He often solved the tasks of bypassing the Foreign Ministry, without coordinating his actions with him, which could not but annoy the Foreign Ministry,” said the interlocutor of RBC, close to the Foreign Ministry.

As the ambassador, Babich at least twice entered into public conflicts with the Foreign Ministry of Belarus. After one of the interviews of the ambassador, the representative of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, Anatoly Eye, called Babich an accountant and an accountant who confused the work in an independent country with work in the Russian Federal District (before the Ambassador of Babich was Putin's envoy in the Volga Federal District). In an interview, Babich stated that if in Minsk they raised the question of domestic -Russian gas prices and the payment of a negative excise tax on Belarusian oil refineries, as provided for Russian, the parties should discuss closer integration within the Union State.

The second time, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry entered a sharp statement after the skirmish of Babich and Lukashenko regarding the price of the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. Babich was accused of contrary to agreements he called the price of construction of the facility - this was reported by deputy Anna Kanopatskaya. Lukashenko, commenting on the mentioned price - 7 billion rubles, said that the ambassador "probably can count badly." “This is not Russia reduced. If the ambassador said this, then it is harmful to itself,” the president emphasized. In response, Babich said that Lukashenko was misleading. In the evening of the same day, the Foreign Ministry of Belarus said that Babich destroyed relations between Russia and Belarus over a few months of work.

As RBC noted, Minsk also did not like that Babich, having started to work, began to meet not only with the authorities, but also with the leaders of social movements and activists considered opposition.

Lukashenko introduced an unspoken ban on the contacts of officials with Babich, says RBC interlocutor close to the Kremlin. In Minsk, it was believed that the Russian ambassador behaves incorrectly, allowing criticism of the Belarusian authorities, he added. “Why did it be necessary to say in the media of another state (Russia. - Ed.) What could only be said to its president, and non -public,” the source explained.

The decree on the appointment of Babich by the ambassador Putin signed on August 24, 2018. He replaced Alexander Surikov in this post, who headed the diplomatic mission for 12 years.