RIGA 's Latvian TV reported on Thursday night that Belarus had recalled its ambassador, possibly due to poor performance.
The public Latvian Television LTV news program Panorama quoted unofficial sources as saying that Belarus had recalled its ambassador, Vladimir Lamkov. The Belarus Embassy in Riga said that Lamkov had gone on a leave for unspecified period time.
The report suggested that the possible reason for recalling the ambassador had been his inability to represent interests of his country properly. For example, he failed to arrange for participation of high-ranking Latvian officials in the Belarus Expo fair held in the Latvian capital Riga last fall, the Baltic News Service reported.
Lamkov is not the first Belarus ambassador to Latvia who had to leave his office early. His predecessor Mikhail Marinich had to return to Belarus in 2001 since Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko had grown annoyed with the ambassador's announcement about running for president.
Few weeks ago a court in Minsk found Belarus opposition leader Marinich guilty of misappropriating office equipment and sentenced him to five years in maximum-security prison.
