MINSK, Belarus -- The conservative parliament in the former Soviet republic of Belarus on Wednesday sacked the country's liberal leader Stanislav Shushkevich in a confidence vote by 209 to 36, official results showed.
But the country's conservative Prime Minister Vyacheslav Kebich survived a motion to oust him. A total of 101 voted for his dismissal and 175 against.
The motion to oust Shushkevich had been passed on charges of corruption.
However, deputies had made it plain in debate that the vote was intended to denounce his pro-market policies and resistance to aligning foreign policy with Russia.
"Accusations against Shushkevich of corrupt practices are sheer nonsense," said Sergei Antonchik of parliament's liberal minority. "We do not approve of all his actions, but he is the rare exception here in that he is an honest man."
But Dmitry Belinky, a centrist, said both men had "discredited our state through their positions. It is for this very reason that they both must resign."
On Tuesday, deputies voted overwhelmingly to sack Interior Minister Vladimir Yegorov and the head of the security service, Eduard Shirkovsky. Both men were accused of endangering national security in connection with the extradition this month of two Communists to neighboring Lithuania.
Shushkevich had waged a single-handed battle to push through reforms in what has been one of the most conservative of the former Soviet republics.
He and Kebich had been locked in battles over policy for more than a year.
Kebich's top adviser, Valery Sorkin, said that the outcome amounted to a rejection of Shushkevich's rapid approach to reform.
"This is approval for the government's policy. Shushkevich is an idealist," he said. "You cannot reform and privatize any more quickly than our government has been doing."
Unlike the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Shushkevich never occupied a top Communist party post.
But also unlike them, he lacks a popular mandate and has been subjected to repeated attacks by the Soviet-era assembly.
Shushkevich survived an attempt to oust him in July when deputies failed to muster enough votes.
Under intense questioning during the corruption probe in December, he was accused of abusing his position and taken to hospital suffering from hypertension.
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