The unpredictable, authoritarian and staunchly pro-Russian leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, presents himself as an outspoken strongman and “president of the common people”.
Described in the West as “Europe’s last dictator”, the 70-year-old has led the eastern European country for most of its post-Soviet history, jailing hundreds of dissidents during his more than 30-year rule.
He is running for an unprecedented seventh term this month, after violently ending mass protests against vote-rigging that erupted after the 2020 polls.
A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko seems unfazed by his portrayal as a brutal dictator, telling lawmakers in an annual speech in 2022: “I’m a dictator, it’s hard for me to understand democracy.”
– From farmer to leader –
Born in 1954 in the then Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, Lukashenko held management positions at various state-owned farms before being elected to the country’s Supreme Soviet in 1990.
He won Belarus’s first democratic presidential election as an independent in 1994, campaigning as an anti-corruption hero who supported close ties with Moscow.
The following year armed lawmakers held a referendum to make Russian the official language, changed the flag to its Soviet-era design and gave him the right to dissolve parliament.
Lukashenko has consolidated his rule in successive elections that observers and rights groups say were rigged.
Before and after the recent presidential vote on 9 August 2020, hundreds of thousands took to the streets to protest political repression and alleged electoral fraud.
Security forces responded by arresting tens of thousands in protests that saw hundreds beaten and tortured in custody, according to rights groups.
During the unrest, Lukashenko flew over the rally in a helicopter wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a Kalashnikov rifle, describing the protesters as “rats”.
Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who ran against Lukashenko to replace her jailed husband, was among an estimated 100,000 who fled the country during the violence.
Lukashenko said before the vote that Belarus will never be led by a woman because “it will fall, it’s bad.”
Many activists who remained — such as activist Maria Kolesnikova — were arrested without communicado.
There are at least 1,200 political prisoners including politicians and journalists in Belarusian prisons, according to human rights watchdog Viasna.
– Strong support for Russia –
Although staunch in his support for Russia and Putin, the Belarusian leader spent years trying to position himself as a bridge between Europe and Moscow.
But with relations with the EU already in tatters as a result of his 2020 crackdown, Lukashenko allowed Putin to use his country as a base to invade Ukraine in February 2022.
In an interview with AFP in the early days of the incident, he blamed the West – not Moscow – for the outbreak of violence.
“You have escalated the war and are continuing it. If Russia had not come before you, you NATO members, you would have planned it and ignored it,” he said.
In 2023, Lukashenko made a deal with then-military chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to end his rebellion against Russia’s military leadership, sparing Putin some embarrassment.
That same year, Putin placed strategic nuclear weapons in Belarus, with Lukashenko’s approval.
The Belarusian leader has promised to use them “without hesitation” if Minsk is attacked.
– I’m not going anywhere –
At home, Lukashenko often supports absurd policy proposals that have drawn both scorn and ridicule from Belarusians.
During the pandemic, he dismissed the coronavirus as a hoax and recommended drinking vodka and taking steam baths.
In October 2022, he announced a ban on all price increases to reduce what he called “extreme inflation”.
When the European Union threatened to punish Minsk for daring to intercept a Ryanair plane to arrest a dissident, the Belarusian leader hinted that he would flood the bloc with “drugs and migrants.”
Later that year, thousands of people from Asian and African countries crossed illegally from Belarus to neighboring Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.
Some commentators have suggested that he is grooming his son Nikolai, who has accompanied his father to many official ceremonies, as heir.
Lukashenko has repeatedly said he will step down “if necessary” — but there are no signs he is ready to step down anytime soon.
“I’m not going to die, guys,” he told officials in May 2023, after missing several high-profile public events. “You will have to bear with me for a very long time.”
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