Materials concerning Astapenko were received by the General Prosecutor's Office from the Ministry of Internal Affairs; he served as ambassador to Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Chile concurrently.
“It has been established that the suspect, through abuse of office, took possession of $ 2,393, which at the rate of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus amounted to 6077 rubles, which he used for personal purposes,” the prosecutor’s statement said.
A case was initiated under Part 1 of Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus.
The organization of the preliminary investigation was entrusted to the central office of the Investigative Committee.
In September, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko dismissed Vasily Markovich from the post of ambassador of the republic to Latvia and stripped him of his diplomatic rank "for improper performance of official duties."
Also in August, the head of state signed a decree on the resignation of the republic's ambassador to Slovakia, Igor Leshchenya, who had previously supported opposition protests.