Drazdy conflict

The Drazdy conflict (sometimes spelled Drozdy) was an incident in July 1998 involving the Government of Belarus and diplomats from other nations. It began by the leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko declaring the Drazdy Complex as property of the government and shutting it down for repairs. The problem was that many diplomats, especially from Western nation-states, called the complex home. Though Lukashenko tried to negotiate a situation with the Western powers, such as France and Germany by appointing Uladzimir Herasimovich for talks, it was not solved in time. In protest of the incident, the United States temporarily recalled its ambassador, Daniel V. Speckhard, who spent one year back in Washington before returning to Belarus. One of the results of the incident was that the European Union issued Lukashenko and approximately 130 other government officials with travel bans that prevent them from traveling to fourteen of the then-fifteen EU states. This also began to lead the United States and non-EU states to issue similar bans (the United States has an exemption for visits to the United Nations headquarters in New York City, New York by the banned officials). According to ITAR-TASS and BelPAN, the Drazdy Complex is now used as a residence for the president and the evicted diplomats were given new locations in Minsk.