Drozdi is a luxerious area in north-west Minsk where many top state officials lived during the communist period and today, including the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. In May 1998 the "Drozdi Crisis" broke when the government demanded that foreign ambassadors leave their residences in Drozdi. The authorities claimed that the diplomats’ eviction was necessary to repair the plumbing and sewage systems. The ambassadors insisted, under the Vienna Convention, and thus according to international law, that Belarus had no right to force them out.