Vladimir Vladimirovich Makei (Russian: Владимир Владимирович Маке́й, Belarusian: Уладзі́мір Уладзі́міравіч Маке́й, Uladzimir Uladzimiravič Makiej; 5 August 1958 – 26 November 2022) was a Belarusian politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus.

Early life and education

Vladimir Makei was born in the hamlet of Niekraševičy, Karelichy District, Hrodna voblast, Byelorussian SSR. He graduated from the Minsk State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages in 1980. He served in the Armed Forces of the USSR and in the Armed Forces of Belarus after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He retired in 1993 as a colonel. In 1993 he graduated from the Austrian Diplomatic Academy.

Career

Makei served in the ministry as secretary of several departments: Information and Humanitarian Cooperation, Analysis and Forecast, Office of the Minister, State Protocol Service. In 1996—1999 he worked in the Belarusian embassy in Paris as a counselor and represented Belarus in the Council of Europe concurrently. In 2000—2008 he was an assistant to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and in 2008—2012 he was the President's Chief of Staff. Since 20 August 2012 he had been Minister of Foreign Affairs.

During the 2020 Belarusian protests, Makei said at a meeting in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that everyone who disagrees with the state policy should leave the ministry. He also forbade the staff to participate in protest activities. Two employees who made a picket with blank sheets of paper were fired within a week (one of them told journalists that he was fired for "gross violation of his duties"). 

In February 2021, Makei accused diplomats of calling for unrest and posting "anti-state" information.[6] Mikalai Khalezin, director of Belarus Free Theatre, claimed that Makei was responsible for trying to discredit his theatre for Khalezin's anti-Lukashenko activities. Pavel Latushko, former ambassador to France and Poland, claimed that Makei expressed anti-Russian views in front of European and American diplomats, but after the 2020 elections he made a volte-face.

Makei spoke Belarusian, Russian, German, and English.

Death

He died in office on 26 November 2022 at the age of 64.