Vladimir Konoplev

Vladimir Nikolayevich Konoplev (Belarusian: Уладзімір Мікалаевіч Канаплёў; born 3 January 1954) is a Belarusian politician and sports official. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2004 to 2007. He is also known for his longstanding association with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Born in Akulincy (Mogilev District) in the Byelorussian SSR, he graduated from the Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University in 1975, where he became friends with Alexander Lukashenko. Afterward, he served as a teacher in Skhlov, and was then a director and later an inspector of schools, also in Skhlov. In 1991, he quit teaching and became an assistant to then deputy of the Supreme Council of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and in 1994 was heavily involved in collecting signatures for Lukashenko's presidential campaign, which led to Lukashenko winning the 1994 Belarusian presidential election. He was afterward promoted to main assistant to Lukashenko before becoming a deputy himself in the XIII convocation, where he led the pro-Lukashenko parliamentary fraction Згода (Zgoda), which helped avoid Lukashenko's impeachment charges in 1996. He afterwards became Deputy Chairman of the now House of Representatives in the first convocation, and was reelected in 2000 as a deputy from Skhlov constituency No. 75. In November 2004 he became Chairman, and during his tenure was known for advocating for closer Belarusian-Russian relations and for being against the Western world. In September 2007, he announced his resignation from the post. After having initially been elected in June 2006 as Chairman of the Handball Federation of Belarus, he continued with that job, being continuously reelected since then.