"According to preliminary information, subject to further confirmation, Lukashenko was rushed to Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital following his closed-door meeting with Putin. Leading specialists have been mobilized to address his critical condition." He wrote it on Twitter, referring to the Belarusian president, Valery Tsepkalo, former presidential candidate of the country, former ambassador to the US and husband of Veronika Tsepkalo, also a candidate against Lukashenko in 2020.
A staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alexander Lukashenko, 68, reappeared in public on May 15 after an absence of nearly a week and after missing the Flag Day ceremony for the first time since he assumed the highest office of the state of the former Soviet republic, 29 years ago. His appearance, with a showy arm band, had not dampened the doubts of those who believed he was seriously ill or even that he had been poisoned. Some thought that it was the Kremlin that tried to kill Putin's satrap. Hypotheses that are found in the words of Tsepkalo, who wrote on Twitter that in the hospital where he is hospitalized "blood purification procedures were carried out" and that "the efforts orchestrated to save the Belarusian dictator aim to dispel speculation on the alleged involvement of the Kremlin in its poisoning".
His conditions would have been deemed "so serious as to advise against the transfer" and the Belarusian opposition wants to be ready in case the dictator should pass away.
But Lukashenko himself takes care of wiping out all the rumors with a message, published by his press service and distributed by Tass, in which he wishes the leader of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and all Azeris on the occasion of the country's national day, the Independence Day. "I am deeply convinced that the strategic partnership between Minsk and Baku, which is based on mutual interest and traditionally friendly and trusting ties, will continue to strengthen, acquiring new forms and directions," he writes.
(Unioneonline/ss)
