FILE of Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko as he is about to be sworn in as President for 7th term

Record ID: 1985218

  • Title: FILE of Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko as he is about to be sworn in as President for 7th term
  • Date: 15th May 2023
  • Summary: Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko said he was ready to mediate Ukraine peace talks if Moscow and Kyiv deem it necessary. MINSK, BELARUS (FILE - JULY 6, 2023) (BELARUSIAN PRESIDENTIAL POOL) (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT, ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, SAYING (ASKED IF HE COULD MEDIATE AT POSSIBLE PEACE TALKS): "I will do it (mediate) if the (warring) sides, Russia and
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: BELARUS LUKASHENKO NEGOTIATIONS PUTIN RUSSIA
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Europe,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA008252415052023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko is to be sworn in as President for the 7th term on Tuesday (March 25).
    In power since 1994, Alexander Lukashenko has cast himself as a leader too busy working for the nation to be able to engage in an election campaign. "To be honest I don't follow it. I simply don't have time for it," he told factory workers just before the latest vote.
    There is no obvious successor in sight to the burly, moustachioed leader who at various times has both embraced and rejected the label of Europe's last dictator - and who in recent months has started freeing some opposition figures from jail in an apparent bid to start repairing relations with the West.
    Mass protests nearly swept him from power after the last election in 2020, when Western governments backed the opposition's claim that he falsified the results and stole victory from its candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
    Lukashenko's security forces detained tens of thousands of protesters, according to human rights groups, and all leading opposition figures were jailed or forced into exile.
    January 2025 vote took place in a country where independent media are banned and blocked. Human rights group Viasna, which is labelled as an extremist organisation, says there are around 1,250 political prisoners; Lukashenko denies there are any.
    PRISONER RELEASES
    But while the outcome of January 2025 election was never in doubt, Lukashenko faces major challenges in navigating relations with both Moscow and the West as he heads into his seventh term against the backdrop of talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
    A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he allowed Moscow to use Belarus as a launchpad for its full-scale "military operation" in Ukraine in February 2022 - and paid the price in the form of Western sanctions. The following year, Putin announced the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
    If the war were to end, then political analysts expect Lukashenko to seek a thaw in ties with Europe and the U.S. and try to get the sanctions lifted.
    That would be in keeping with his decades-long record of flirting periodically with the West in order to prevent Belarus from becoming totally dependent on Russia and risking being swallowed up entirely by its much larger neighbour.
    "If the war ends, there will be certain windows of opportunity for Lukashenko if he wants to continue these tactics of balancing between Russia and the West," Chulitskaya said.
    In the first tentative signs of an easing of repression, Lukashenko has, since last July, issued what he called humanitarian pardons to 250 people serving prison terms for alleged extremist activity.
    He has also allowed limited access in prison to two of the best known opposition figures, Maria Kalesnikava and Viktor Babariko, who had been isolated for nearly two years without any contact with the outside world.
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