[1] The next year, Sidarenka joined the Belarusian Foreign Ministry's service and worked for the Pan-European Cooperation section in the Department for Europe.

In 2002, he was acting leader of the Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Belarus at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna.

According to information from the Belarusian opposition Internet portal Zerkalo, though, Sidarenka had experienced heavy physical stress in the KGB's lie detector tests.

[4] The Belarusian news outlet Nasha Niva quoted unnamed sources who said that "[Sidarenka] did not get out of polygraphs and interrogations," further adding that "It is said in Minsk that all career diplomats returning from the EU are now subject to close operational scrutiny by special services" — that is to say, the KGB.

[5] For her part, Katherine Brucker, the Chargée d’Affaires of the United States Mission, speaking to the OSCE's Permanent Council, said that Sidarenka had died "under circumstances that are unclear and very troubling," and she asserted that there had been "reports" that "his body showed signs of torture.