Two days after dumping its reform-minded head of state, the Belarus parliament on Friday elected a former Communist to replace him.
Mechislav Grib, until now head of parliament's Commission of National Security, Defense and Anti-Crime Struggle, replaces the ousted Stanislav Shushkevich.Grib, 57, won on a 183-55 vote, receiving nine more votes than required. His formal title is chairman of the Belarussian Supreme Soviet, or parliament.
Reformers warn that the removal of Shushkevich was part of a "creeping coup" that will steer the former Soviet republic back into the arms of Russia.
A former Communist who rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the republic's police force, Grib believes in strong measures to bring Belarus out of economic crisis, monetary ties to Russia and making the country nuclear-free.
"I'm firmly convinced without unity, without consolidating all forces, it will be very difficult to break out of the economic crisis in which we have found ourselves," Grib told television interviewers after the election.
"We should concentrate on our economic issues and on the consolidation of economic ties with the Russian Federation," he said.