Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko are very good friends. There are many similarities between the two. Like Putin, Lukashenko has also been in power in Belarus for a long time. In March of this year, Putin was elected President of Russia for the sixth time. It is now also considered certain that his friend Lukashenko will be president for the seventh time. In January next year, presidential elections will be held in Belarus.
Lukashenko has been president of Belarus since 1994. When Lukashenko first ran for office, he had promised to pull Belarus out of the hole. However, now his image has become that of a dictator. He is also called the last dictator of Europe.
In 2020, Lukashenko was elected president for the sixth time. When Lukashenko’s victory in the last election was announced, there were massive demonstrations in Belarus. After this, thousands of protesters were arrested. Despite all the protests in Belarus, Lukashenko’s grip on power has remained strong.
This is how he became president of Belarus
Lukashenko’s political career began in 1990. At that time Lukashenko was elected deputy of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus. In 1993 he was appointed acting chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee of the Parliament of Belarus.
In 1994, presidential elections were held for the first time in Belarus. The elections were held in two rounds. In the first round, Lukashenko received 45 percent of the votes and in the second round, more than 80 percent of the votes. Lukashenko remained close to Russia from the beginning.
The president’s term in Belarus is five years. But Lukashenko’s first term was extended by two years. In 2001, presidential elections were held here for the second time, in which Lukashenko became president for the second time with more than 75 percent of the votes. After this, Lukashenko also won in the 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2020 elections.
Lukashenko won the 2020 presidential election for the sixth time. The opposition alleged fraud. The then US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, also raised doubts about these elections. The opposition candidate, Viatlana Tsikhanouskaya, claimed to have obtained between 60 and 70% of the votes.
Who is Lukashenko?
Alexander Lukashenko was born on August 31, 1954. His maternal grandfather, Trokhim Ivanovich Lukashenko, resided in the Sumy province of Ukraine. His mother raised him alone. His mother, Ekaterina Trofimovna Lukashenko, worked at a railway construction site. He later settled in a small town in Belarus adjacent to the Russian border.
Lukashenko studied agriculture at a university in Belarus. After this, he also joined the Soviet army for two years, from 1975 to 1977. Lukashenko was posted as a deputy political officer in the Soviet army.
Lukashenko and Putin are considered good friends. Like Putin, Lukashenko was also angry about the breakup of the Soviet Union. Lukashenko is said to have been the only member to vote against the dissolution of the Soviet Union. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Belarus also became an independent country.
