Vyacheslav Kebich

He was the first Prime Minister of Belarus, serving from 1991 until 1994, having held the equivalent office of the Byelorussian SSR since 1990. During his tenure in office he promoted a pro-Russian stance. In early February 1994 that he 'would continue campaigning for a monetary union with Russia, as I always have done and am doing now. It is not just a question of economic circumstances. We are linked by the closest spiritual bonds; we have a common history and similar cultures'. In early March he told parliament that Belarusian-Russian relations were Minsk's basic foreign policy priority, 'owing to the community of Belarusian-Russian culture, the identical interests of two fraternal peoples.[4]

Kebich was one of the drafters and signees of the Belavezha Accords that effectively ended the Soviet Union and founded the Commonwealth of Independent States. He was also one of two candidates in the final running for President of Belarus in 1994 but losing to current leader Alexander Lukashenko by a wide margin. After that election, he has led the Belarusian Commerce and Financial Union and was member of the House of Representatives.

Before his career as a politician, Kebich worked as an engineer.[5] He was born on 10 June 1936 in the village of Konyushevshchina (present-day Minsk region of Belarus). In 1958 he graduated from the engineering department of the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute. He studied at the Higher Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus.[6]