Stanislaŭ Šuškievič, first leader of independent Belarus, dies aged 87

Stanislaŭ Šuškievič, the first head of state of independent Belarus and one of the signatories of the Belovezh accords which formally dissolved the USSR in 1991 died aged 87 in Minsk, his wife reported to Euroradio.

Šuškievič died after being hospitalised for complications caused by COVID-19 earlier in April; he spent his last days in an intensive care unit. He served as PM of Belarus from 1991 to 1994. Stanislaŭ Šuškievič, alongside Russia’s Boris Yeltsin and Ukraine’s Leonid Kravchuk, signed the Belovezh accords, a set of documents which formally dissolved the Soviet Union. Šuškievič was also a fierce opponent of Alyaksandar Lukašenka, the country’s current dictator, and signed an appeal to the Constitutional Court in 1996 demanding that Lukašenka be impeached. He was also the leader of a political party called Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly between 1998 and 2018.