Uladzimier Syamashka

Vladimir Semashko (; born 20 November 1949) is a Belarusian politician. He served as First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus from 2003 to 2014 and one of the Deputy Prime Ministers of the Republic of Belarus from 2014 to 2018, where he acted as the government's chief negotiator on oil and gas issues and oversaw major industrial construction. From 2018 to 2022, he also served as Ambassador of Belarus to Russia.

Early life Semashko was born on 20 November 1949 in the village of Kalinkavichy, which was then part of the Byelorussian SSR of the Soviet Union. According to interviews, he stated his father fought in World War II and his mother worked in the wartime industry. In 1972, he graduated from the Belarusian National Technical University, and afterwords he completed his mandatory service in the Soviet Armed Forces. He was first a design engineer, before becoming head of KB-44, a design bureau. During his tenure, he was responsible for gas negotiations with Russia's Gazprom after the company accused Belarus of overdrawing 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas and failing to pay for part of its supplies. Semashko called thee company's allegations "groundless", and he stated Gazprom had no legal basis to demand exclusive control over Belarus's gas imports and he said the country would continue to buy from Itera. He also attempted to restore order in domestic energy payments for Belenergo and Beltopgaz, in addition to getting the companies to repay their debts. In these roles, he mainly focused on Belarus's economic and energy policy, and was regarding as Belarus's strongest negotiator on energy issues. He emphasized efforts to diversify exports beyond Russia, reduce the economy's vulnerability to regional recessions, and attract foreign investment in manufacturing. He oversaw privatization plans and defended state-owned enterprises, calling them a pillar of social stability. He was heavily involved in the construction of the Astravets Nuclear Power Plant near Lithuania. However, he was controversial among members of the Belarusian opposition for pushing major industriral modernization efforts that had massive cost overruns and long-terms losses including the BMZ pipe-rolling modernization, oil refinery upgrades in Mozyr and Novopolotsk, and a metal construction plant in Molodechno.

In August 2018, he was dismissed by Lukashenko during a cabinet reshuffle. Lukashenko immediately insisted that this was not related to age or health reasons, and said that he would instead be rotated into a different position. On 13 November 2018, he was officially confirmed as Ambassador of Belarus to Russia, while also simultaneously serving as plenipotentiary representative to the CIS Economic Council, CSTO, and as special representative for the integration cooperation in the Union State, EAEU, CIS, and CSTO.

As ambassador, he continued to take a slightly critical stance towards gas agreements with Russia, stating the country had not fulfilled its agreements because Belarus was paying more than twice the amount of gas that others Russian regions paid, which he argued violated the Union State agreements. On 3 August 2020, he was summoned by the Russian MFA after 33 Russian Wagner mercenaries in Belarus shortlyy before the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, which had caused in strain in the two country's relations. However, by 2022, relations improved and he stated that the two countries were moving towards deeper economic integration despite Western sanctions. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he publicly criticized Western countries of revisionism regarding World War II, but he did not directly comment on the invasion itself.

Personal life He is married to Natalia Semashko, who is the founder and director of Belkontinent-97, a logging company. They have two daughthers: Irina Tatarnikova, who was Deputy General Director at Dabrabyt Bank and married to an art editor, and Tatyana Eliseeva, who was the former head of Integrative Psychodrama and is married to Ivan Eliseev who in 2014 was investigated by the KGB for tax fraud.

He owns property in the elite Drazdy district of Minsk, where most of Lukashenko's allies live, and a dacha in the Goroshki garden near Stalin Line which is also in Minsk.