The first president of independent Belarus and one of the gravediggers of the Soviet Union, Stanislav Shushkevich, has died at the age of 87. This was stated today for AFP by his widow, BTA reported.
“We hope that a state funeral will be arranged for him, but no one has called us so far,” said Inna Shushkevich.
According to a number of media outlets, the politician died too weak after COVID-19. He became infected in March and in late April his wife announced that she was in intensive care.
On December 8, 1991, Shushkevich, as leader of Belarus, along with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kravchuk, signed an agreement regulating the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
In 1994, Belarusian lawmakers forced him to resign over allegations of corruption by a parliamentary committee headed by Alexander Lukashenko, the country’s current leader.
Until 2018, Stanislav Shushkevich was the leader of the Belarusian opposition Social Democratic Party. In 2012, following protests in the country, he said his regime had banned him from leaving Belarus.
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