INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Stanislav Shushkevich, the first leader of independent Belarus who played a key role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, died Wednesday
He was placed in intensive care last month."We hope that a state funeral will be organized, but no one has contacted us yet," Irina
Shushkevich told AFP.As chairman of the parliament of Soviet Belarus, Shushkevich hosted Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian
President Leonid Kravchuk for secret talks at a government hunting lodge in the Belovezha Forest in late 1991.The trio came to an agreement
behind the back of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and signed a deal known as the Belovezha accords that declared "the U.S.S.R
succeeded by former collective farm chairman Alexander Lukashenko when the office of the president was established in 1994
authoritarian grip and orchestrated a sweeping clampdown on Belarusians who protested his disputed 2020 election victory.
