Belarus Dashes Veshnyakov's CIS Hopes

Former chairman of the Russian Central Elections Committee Alexander Veshnyakov's candidacy for executive secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States will not be discussed at the CIS summit in Dushanbe tomorrow because Belarus remains opposed to his appointment to that post. A consensus is required for the appointment. Moscow's plan to replace current CIS head and former Russian interior minister Vladimir Rushailo with Veshnyakov became known in June but his candidacy was not discussed at the summit in St. Petersburg that month. Veshnyakov may be offered an ambassadorial post in Europe instead.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Noursultan Nazarbaev in St. Petersburg that he was categorically opposed to Veshnyakov's appointment. Efforts to sway the Belarusian leader have been unsuccessful.

Members of the Russian CEC suggested in unofficial conversations with Kommersant that the cause for Lukashenko's opposition was probably the observers' delegation Veshnyakov led during the Belarusian presidential elections of 2002. Although the Russian delegation gave the elections a positive assessment, unlike all Western delegations, Veshnyakov noted that individual Belarusian presidential orders could be interpreted as violating the CIS convention on elections. Veshnyakov was personally instrumental in establishing that convention. At the time of the elections, Belarus was the only CIS member state that had not ratified it. The Belarusian presidential press service declined to comment on the issue.

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