Valery Kavaleuski | |
|---|---|
_(52845004974)_(cropped).jpg) Valery Kavaleuski at the conference in Warsaw (2022) | |
| Born | Bieražnoje  |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Diplomat,politician |
Valery Kavaleuski is a Belarusian diplomat[1][2] and politician. On 9 August 2022,Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya appointed Kavaleuski as Deputy Head and Representative for Foreign Affairs in theUnited Transitional Cabinet of Belarus that is opposed to thede facto government ofAlexander Lukashenko.[3]
Valery Kavaleuski was born in the village of Bieražnoje in thePalesse area in southern Belarus in 1976 and graduated from the Berazhnoe Secondary School in 1993.[citation needed]
Kavaleuski obtained a specialist (equivalent of bachelor's) degree ininternational relations in theBelarusian State University in 1998, an Executive MBA atKozminski University in 2008, and a Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) degree from theWalsh School of Foreign Service inGeorgetown University in 2014.[4]
Kavaleuski worked in the BelarusianMinistry of Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 2006.[5] He specialised inBelarus–United States relations and later dealt withhuman rights issues in multilateral organisations. In June 2005, he represented Belarus at theCouncil of Europe inStrasbourg as a counsellor in theDivision for Human Rights,Department for Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights at the ministry.[2] In September 2005, he represented the ministry at a meeting of theInternational Organization for Migration in Geneva.[6]
From 2001 to 2004, Kavaleuski was seconded to the Belarusian embassy in the United States asfirst secretary to work on political issues.[1] In 2002, he briefly served as the chargé d'affaires of Belarus in the US. Kavaleuski resigned from diplomatic service during theJeans Revolution,[citation needed] when Lukashenko remained in power for a third term after the disputed2006 Belarusian presidential election.
Before joining Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's team in December 2020, Kavaleuski worked in theWorld Bank Group in Washington, DC.[4] Before then, Kavaleuski was an international journalist at Voice of America.[7]
In 2015, Kavaleuski wasDirector for Strategy and Public Affairs of theBelarusan-American Association.[8]
In January 2011, Kavaleuski was arrested by theBelarusian KGB for supportingAndrei Sannikov, who had been a leading candidate in the2010 Belarusian presidential election. He spent 12 days of administrative arrest inOkrestina Detention Centre and three days in a KGB prison.[9]
On 16 September 2014, Kavaleuski participated in a protest in Washington, D.C. near the Belarusian embassy, calling for information aboutViktar Hanchar and Anatol Krasouski, who wereforcefully disappeared in 1999 in Minsk.[10]
In 2015, Kavaleuski argued that the Russian–Belarusian agreement for Russia to establish an airbase in Belarus was a violation of theBelarusian Constitution, was against the wishes of Belarusians, and placed Belarus into the "line of conflict" between Russia and the West, at a time when Russia had "become fully committed to a dangerous geopolitical agenda undermining international security".[8]
Kavaleuski returned from the US to Minsk in August 2020 and participated in the2020–2021 Belarusian protests that followed the disputed2020 Belarusian presidential election. He was thrown to the ground during a protest on 22 November 2020 and detained for several days. He joinedSviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in exile in Lithuania in December 2020.[1]
In November 2021, in Canada, Kavaleuski discussed the Belarusian situation withAmnesty International,The Canadian Press and theHalifax International Security Forum.[1]
In July 2022, during the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kavaleuski headed Tsikhanouskaya's office inKyiv. He negotiated conditions for allowing Belarusians supporting Ukraine to stay in Ukraine withDmytro Lubinets [uk], theUkrainian Human Rights Ombudsman.[11]
Kavaleuski was appointed to the BelarusianUnited Transitional Cabinet, a government-in-exile, on 9 August 2022.[3] In October, Kavaleuski and Tsikhanouskaya started negotiating an alliance with the Ukrainian government against the possibility of Russia taking full control of Belarus.[12]
On 26 June 2024, Kavaleuski resigned from the UTC. He referred to differences on strategic approaches and tactical matters among his reasons for resigning.[13]
As of August 2024[update], Kavaleuski is the head of theEuro-Atlantic Affairs Agency, officially launched on 1 August 2024.[citation needed]
In November 2021, Kavaleuski described the Belarusian situation, stating, "What's happening in Belarus, it's like black and white. People want democracy and freedom, and there is no geopolitical undertone."[1]