Media: Mikhail Babich, at the request of Lukashenko, will be removed from the post of ambassador to Belarus

&NBSPUPDATE

17:45 & The information was confirmed by sources of RIA Novosti and Interfax . & RBC named the Senator from Sakhalin Dmitry Mezentsev, who was also the SCO Secretary General and Governor of the Irkutsk region, a priority candidate for his place.

President Vladimir Putin will "shortly" recall Mikhail Babich from the post of Belarusian ambassador, sources told Kommersant. According to another source of the newspaper, the proposal "has been discussed since last week" in his administration.

According to the newspaper, President Alexander Lukashenko repeatedly asked Putin to resign Babich, and the last time was at a meeting in Beijing as part of the One Belt, One Road forum. “Putin agreed, gave Lukashenka a year, promising not to interfere in the internal Belarusian agenda,” the newspaper quotes its high-ranking source as saying.

The dissatisfaction of the Belarusian authorities was caused by his statements about the need for further rapprochement of the two states within the framework of the union agreement on a single monetary, tax, customs and other policies. According to Kommersant, he also regularly traveled around the country, met with entrepreneurs and opposition representatives.

In mid-April, Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz accused Babich of "successfully and effectively" destroying relations between the countries after he refuted the cost of building a nuclear power plant (BelNPP) named by Lukashenka.

Recall that the presidential envoy to the Volga region, Mikhail Babich, was appointed head of the diplomatic mission in Minsk in August last year. Prior to that, he headed the Antey corporation, was an assistant to the head of the FSB border service, and at the turn of 2002-2003, he was the chairman of the Chechen government for about three months.