Russia: Belarus President Lukashenko rushed to a Moscow hospital after meeting with Putin
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: After he met his close ally Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko was rushed to a hospital in the Russian capital, the media reported on Monday.
An opposition leader in Belarus claimed that the Kremlin poisoned President Lukashenko.
Stating that Lukashenko was in critical condition at the Central Clinical Hospital of Moscow, Belarus 2020 presidential candidate Valery Tsepkalo, in a Saturday Telegram post, said: “According to the information we have, which requires additional confirmation, Lukashenko after a meeting with Putin behind closed doors, was urgently taken to the Central Clinical Hospital of Moscow, where he is currently staying.”
“The best specialists were sent to return him (Lukashenko) from a condition assessed by doctors as critical,” he added.
“The organized measures to rescue the Belarusian dictator were aimed at averting speculation about the possible involvement of the Kremlin in his poisoning.”
He said that doctors have warned of a possible recurrence of relapses.
According to Newsweek, rumors about Lukashenko’s health have been doing the rounds after his appearance at the Victory Day celebration in Moscow’s Red Square on May 9. However, the President, who has led Belarus since 1994, dismissed the rumors and said, “I’m not going to die guys.”
Russia signed a deal with the Lukashenko government only last week to formalize the deployment of tactical nuclear missiles in Belarus, the Russian news agency TASS reported.
The defense ministers of Russia and Belarus signed the documents defining the procedures for storing Russian nuclear weapons at a special facility on Belarusian territory, the Belarusian Defense Ministry reported.
“During the meeting, documents determining the procedure for keeping Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons in a special storage facility on the territory of the Republic of Belarus were signed,” the ministry’s press service said.
The measures Russia and Belarus took “comply with all existing international legal obligations,” it stressed.
The defense ministers also discussed the current military and political situation and issues of military and technical cooperation between the two countries.
