Belarus
Duma deputy: Lukashenko is ill
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko (centre) alongside veterans watches the Victory Day military parade marking the 78th anniversary of the end of World War II on Red Square in Moscow. photo
© Gavriil Grigorov/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP/dpa
What about the state of health of the Belarusian ruler? A Duma deputy has now commented on his possible illness.
After days of speculation about the state of health of the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko, a member of the Duma has commented on his possible illness. “It’s nothing extraordinary, it’s not Covid. People are simply sick,” Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin told the Podjom Internet portal on Sunday evening. Most recently, Lukashenko appeared in public at the celebrations on May 9th to mark the anniversary of the Red Army’s victory over Hitler’s Germany. Even in Moscow he looked shattered and left the celebrations earlier.
Zatulin, who is deputy head of the Committee on Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) affairs in the Russian parliament, did not want to reveal what the 68-year-old was ill with. “He probably needs a little rest, that’s all,” he said.
At the weekend in the ex-Soviet republic, Lukashenko was represented by Prime Minister Roman Golovtschenko at the pompous ceremony marking State Flag Day – for the first time in 29 years. This fueled speculation about Lukashenko’s health. Officially, there is still no information from Minsk about a possible illness of the head of state. Against this background, Belarusian ex-Culture Minister Pavel Latuschko, who fled into exile, declared on Friday that Lukashenko “is obviously very seriously ill.”