A carnival float featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin handling Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko like a puppet, is presented in the center of Cologne, western Germany, on February 28, 2022, where a “Freedom for Ukraine” demonstration took place instead of the traditional carnival Rose Monday procession.
Ina Fassbender/AFP
Caught between reliance on the Kremlin and strong antiwar sentiments at home, Alexander Lukashenko is treading a fine line on Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Since 2020, Belarus and Russia have accelerated moves towards integration.
Pictorial Press Ltd | Alamy Stock Photo
By allowing Russian military presence in Belarus, president Aliaksandr Lukashenka has forfeited his country’s sovereignty.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, left, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 18, 2022.
Sergei Guneyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images
Belarus’ alliance with Russia is a strategic factor in the Ukraine war. The country’s long-term dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, has indicated he will do as Russian President Vladimir Putin says.
Hopes for a better future?
Maxim Guchek/BELTA/AFP via Getty Images
Recent actions against critics of the Belarusian government show that Lukashenko’s crackdown on dissent is extending beyond the country’s borders.
Biden is expected to confront Russian leader Vladimir Putin (center) over his stalwart backing of Europe’s last dictator, Alexander Lukashenko (left).
From left to right: Sergei Ilyin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images and Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Some tension was inevitable at the June 16 US-Russia summit. But Vladimir Putin’s defiant support for Belarus’s rogue regime now pits him harder against the West.
Belarus’ leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has gone to extraordinary measures to cling to power. Last weekend, this included the state-sanctioned hijacking of a passenger plane.
In exile or prison: Belarus opposition figures Svetlana Tikhanovsksaya, Veronika Tsepkalo and Maria Kolesnikova.
Natalia Fedosenko/TASS/Alamy Live News
Hundreds of thousands of people have protested the regime of Alexander Lukashenko over the last six months – a new survey reveals what they want.
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko takes the oath of office during an unannounced inauguration ceremony Sept. 23 in Minsk.
Andrei Stasevich\TASS via Getty Images
People have lost all faith in Lukashenko to fix the country’s economy.
Deploying riot police to suppress peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in Belarus turned more people against the country’s autocratic leader.
AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File
Pres. Lukashenka of Belarus has stayed in power for 26 years by being a master tactician. But he has seriously mishandled opposition protests, says a Belarus-born scholar of Eastern European politics.
Assistant Professor of Instruction at School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, Affiliate Professor at the Institute for Russian, European, and Eurasian Studies, University of South Florida