Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated from Belarusian as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician and statesman who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making him the current longest-tenured European president.
Lukashenko was born in Kopys, and before embarking on his political career, he worked as the director of a state farm (sovkhoz) and served in both the Soviet Border Troops and the Soviet Army. In 1990, Lukashenko was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he assumed the position of head of the interim anti-corruption committee of the Supreme Council of Belarus. In 1994, he won the presidency in the country's inaugural presidential election after the adoption of a new constitution. Lukashenko opposed economic shock therapy during the 1990s post-Soviet transition, maintaining state ownership of key industries in Belarus. His supporters claim this spared Belarus from recessions as devastating as those in other post-Soviet states, whose political structures devolved into oligarchic crony capitalism. Lukashenko's maintenance of the socialist economic model is consistent with the retention of Soviet-era symbolism, including the Russian language, coat of arms, and national flag. These symbols were adopted after a controversial 1995 referendum.
Following the same referendum, Lukashenko acquired increased power, including the authority to dismiss the Supreme Council. Another referendum in 1996 further facilitated his consolidation of power. Lukashenko has since presided over an authoritarian government and has commonly been labelled as "Europe's last dictator". International monitors have not considered Belarusian elections as free and fair, except for his initial win. Additionally, the government harshly suppresses opponents and limits media freedom. Eventually, this has led multiple Western governments to impose sanctions on Lukashenko and other Belarusian officials. Lukashenko's contested victory in the 2020 presidential election preceded allegations of vote-rigging, amplifying anti-government protests, the largest seen during his rule. Consequently, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States ceased to recognise Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus following the disputed election. Lukashenko remained in power, which eventually led to a resumption of partial diplomatic relations. His re-election in the 2025 presidential election was described as a sham by the opposition and the European parliament.
Such isolation from parts of the West has, especially in the Putin era, increased his dependence on Russia, with whom Lukashenko had already maintained close ties despite past tensions, such as the so-called Milk War in 2009, allegedly stemming from Belarus' refusal to recognise the republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in exchange for $500 million loan, in the aftermath of the Russo-Georgian War. Lukashenko played a crucial role in creating the Union State, enabling Belarusians and Russians to travel, work, and study unhindered between the two countries. He also reportedly played a crucial role in brokering a deal to end the Russian Wagner Group rebellion in 2023, allowing some Wagner soldiers to cross the country's border unhindered and settle in Belarus.
Early life, family, and education
Lukashenko was born on 30 August 1954 in the settlement of Kopys in the Vitebsk Region of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Starting with an interview given in 2009, Lukashenko has said that his actual birthday is 31 August, the same as his son Nikolai's. This caused some confusion as all official sources had said 30 August 1954 up until then. An explanation was later given that his mother had entered the hospital on the 30th in labour, but did not give birth until after midnight.
His maternal grandfather, Trokhym Ivanovich Lukashenko, was born near Shostka in the then-Russian Empire, now in the Ukrainian village known today as Sobycheve. Lukashenko grew up without a father in his childhood, leading him to be taunted by his schoolmates for having an unmarried mother. Due to this, the origin of his patronymic Grigorevich is unknown, and there are varying rumours about the identity of Lukashenko's father. The most common suggestion is that the man was a Roma passing through the region. His mother, Ekaterina Trofimovna Lukashenko (1924–2015), had given birth to another son, older than Alexander, who later died on an unknown date. Ekaterina worked unskilled jobs on a railway, at a construction site, at a flax factory in Orsha, and finally as a milkmaid in Alexandria, a small village in the east of Belarus, close to the Russian border.
Lukashenko went to Alexandria secondary school. He graduated from the Mogilev Pedagogical Institute (now Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University) in Mogilev in 1975 after four years of study. He also completed studies at the Belarusian Agricultural Academy in Horki in 1985.
Military and early political career
He served in the Soviet Border Troops from 1975 to 1977, where he was an instructor of the political department of military unit No. 2187 of the Western Frontier District in Brest, and in the Soviet Army from 1980 to 1982. In addition, he led an All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Komsomol) chapter in Mogilev from 1977 to 1978. While in the Soviet Army, Lukashenko served as a deputy political officer at the 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division, which was based in Minsk.
In 1979, he joined the ranks of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of Byelorussia. After leaving the military, he became the deputy chairman of a collective farm in 1982 and in 1985. In 1987, he was appointed as the director of the Gorodets state farm in Shklow district, and in early 1988, he was one of the first in the Mogilev Region to introduce a leasing contract to a state farm.
In 1990, Lukashenko was elected a Deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR. Having acquired a reputation as an eloquent opponent of corruption, Lukashenko was elected in April 1993 to be interim chairman of the anti-corruption committee of the Belarusian parliament. In late 1993, he accused 70 senior government officials, including Supreme Soviet chairman Stanislav Shushkevich and prime minister Vyacheslav Kebich, of corruption, including embezzlement of state funds for personal purposes. While the charges ultimately proved to be without merit, Shushkevich resigned his chairmanship due to the embarrassment of this series of events and losing a vote of no-confidence. He was in that position until July 1994.
Presidency (1994–present)
First term (1994–2001)
A new Belarusian constitution enacted in early 1994 paved the way for the first democratic presidential election on 23 June and 10 July. Six candidates stood in the first round, including Lukashenko, who campaigned as an independent on a populist platform. In an interview with The New York Times, he declared, "I am neither with the leftists nor the rightists. But with the people against those who rob and deceive them." Stanislav Shushkevich and Vyacheslav Kebich also ran, with the latter regarded as the clear favourite. Lukashenko won 45.1% of the vote while Kebich received 17.4%, Zianon Pazniak received 12.9% and Shushkevich, along with two other candidates, received less than 10% of the cast votes.
Lukashenko won the second round of the election on 10 July with 80.1% of the vote. The presidential inauguration was held in the halls of the Government House on 20 July 1994, exactly ten days after the election, during a special meeting of the parliament, the Supreme Council. Shortly after his inauguration, he addressed the State Duma of the Russian Federation in Moscow, proposing a new Union of Slavic states, which would culminate in the creation of the Union of Russia and Belarus in 1999.
In February 1995, Lukashenko announced his intention to hold a referendum. For the young democratic republic, this raised the controversial issue of the Russification of Belarus. Lukashenko said he would press ahead with the referendum regardless of opposition in the Supreme Council and threatened to suspend its activities if it did not agree to hold the referendum. On 11 April 1995, a vote was held in parliament on calling a referendum on four issues proposed by Lukashenko: 1) granting Russian the status of a state language, 2) changing state symbols, 3) on economic integration with Russia, and 4) on giving the president the right to dissolve parliament. The deputies rejected all the issues, except for that which regarded economic integration with Russia. It is unclear whether the president had legal power to call referendums independently, and if so, whether they would be binding. Lukashenko stated that the referendum would be held despite the rejection by the deputies.
In protest, 19 out of a total of 238 deputies of the Belarusian Popular Front led by Zianon Pazniak and the Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly led by Oleg Trusov (b. Алег Анатолевіч Трусаў) began a hunger strike in the parliamentary meeting room and stayed there overnight on the night of 11–12 April. At night, under the pretext of a bomb threat, unidentified law enforcement personnel attacked and forcibly expelled the deputies. Lukashenko stated that he personally ordered the evacuation for security purposes. The Supreme Council agreed to hold the referendum on 13 April, and in May 1995, Belarusian authorities held a referendum on the four issues. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe found neither the referendum nor the 1995 Belarusian parliamentary election, which took place in the same month, to have met the minimal requirements for free and fair elections.
In the summer of 1996, deputies of the 199-member Belarusian parliament signed a petition to impeach Lukashenko on charges of violating the Constitution. Shortly after that, a referendum was held on 24 November 1996 in which four questions were offered by Lukashenko and three offered by a group of Parliament members. The questions ranged from social issues, including changing the country's Independence Day to 3 July (the date of the liberation of Minsk from Nazi forces in 1944) and the abolition of the death penalty, to the national constitution. As a result of the referendum, the constitution that was amended by Lukashenko was accepted, while the one amended by the Supreme Council was voided. On 25 November, it was announced that 70.5% of voters, of an 84% turnout, had approved the amended constitution. The US and the EU, however, refused to accept the referendum's legitimacy.
After the referendum, Lukashenko convened a new parliamentary assembly from those members of the parliament who were loyal to him. After between ten and twelve deputies withdrew their signatures from the impeachment petition, only about forty deputies of the old parliament were left, and the Supreme Council was dismissed by Lukashenko. Nevertheless, international organisations and most Western countries refuse to recognise the current parliament because of the (unjust and illegal) manner in which it was formed. Lukashenko was elected chairman of the Belarusian Olympic Committee in 1997. At the start of 1998, the Central Bank of Russia suspended trading of the Belarusian ruble, which led to a collapse in the value of the currency. Lukashenko responded by taking control of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, sacking the entire bank leadership, and blaming the West for the currency's free-fall.
Lukashenko blamed foreign governments for conspiring against him and, in April 1998, expelled ambassadors from the Drazdy complex near Minsk and moved them to another building. The Drazdy conflict caused an international outcry and resulted in a travel ban on Lukashenko from both the EU and the US. Although the ambassadors eventually returned after the controversy died down, Lukashenko stepped up his rhetorical attacks against the West. He stated that Western governments were trying to undermine Belarus at all levels, even sports, during the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
Upon the outbreak of the Kosovo War in 1999, Lukashenko suggested to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević that Yugoslavia join the Union of Russia and Belarus.
Second term (2001–2006)
Under the original constitution, Lukashenko should have been up for reelection in 1999. However, the 1996 referendum extended Lukashenko's term for two additional years. In the 9 September 2001 election, Lukashenko faced Vladimir Goncharik and Sergei Gaidukevich. During the campaign, Lukashenko promised to raise the standards of farming and social benefits as well as increase Belarus's industrial output. Lukashenko won in the first round with 75.65% of the vote. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said the election process "failed to meet international standards".
Jane's Intelligence Digest surmised that the price of Russian support for Lukashenko ahead of the 2001 presidential election was the surrender of Minsk's control over its section of the Yamal–Europe gas pipeline. After the results were announced, declaring Lukashenko the winner, Russia publicly welcomed Lukashenko's re-election; the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, telephoned Lukashenko and offered a message of congratulations and support.
Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, US intelligence agencies reported that aides of Saddam Hussein managed to acquire Belarusian passports while in Syria, but that it was unlikely that Belarus would offer a safe haven for Saddam and his two sons. This action, along with arms deals with Iraq and Iran, prompted Western governments to take a tougher stance against Lukashenko. The US was particularly angered by the arms sales, and US political leaders increasingly began to refer to Belarus as "Europe's last dictatorship". The EU was concerned for the security of its gas supplies from Russia, which are piped through Belarus, and took an active interest in Belarusian affairs. With the accession of Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania, the EU's border with Belarus has grown to more than 1000 kilometers.
During a televised address to the nation on 7 September 2004, Lukashenko announced plans for a referendum to eliminate presidential term limits. This was held on 17 October 2004, the same day as parliamentary elections, and, according to official results, was approved by 79.42% of voters. Previously, Lukashenko had been limited to two terms and thus would have been constitutionally required to step down after the presidential elections in 2006. Opposition groups, the OSCE, the European Union, and the US State Department stated that the vote fell short of international standards. Belarus grew economically under Lukashenko, but much of this growth was due to Russian crude oil, which was imported at below-market prices, refined, and sold to other European countries at a profit.
Third term (2006–2010)
After Lukashenko confirmed he was running for re-election in 2005, opposition groups began to seek a single candidate. On 16 October 2005, on the Day of Solidarity with Belarus, the political groups Zubr and Third Way Belarus encouraged all opposition parties to rally behind one candidate to oppose Lukashenko in the 2006 election. Their chosen candidate was Alexander Milinkevich. Lukashenko reacted by saying that anyone going to opposition protests would have their necks wrung "as one might a duck". On 19 March 2006, exit polls showed Lukashenko winning a third term in a landslide, amid opposition reports of vote-rigging and fear of violence. The Belarusian Republican Youth Union gave Lukashenko 84.2% and Milinkevich 3.1%. Gallup, Inc., an internationally renowned US analytics company, noted that the Belarusian Republican Youth Union is a government-controlled organisation and released the exit poll results before noon on election day, even though voting stations did not close until 20:00.
Belarusian authorities vowed to prevent any large-scale demonstrations following the election (such as those that marked the Orange Revolution in Ukraine). Despite their efforts, the opposition had the largest number of demonstrators in years, with nightly protests in Minsk continuing for a number of days after the election. The largest protest occurred on election night; reporters for the Associated Press estimated that approximately 10,000 people turned out. Election observers from the Russia-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) differed on the Belarusian election.
The OSCE declared on 20 March 2006 that the "presidential election failed to meet OSCE commitments for democratic elections." Lukashenko "permitted State authority to be used in a manner which did not allow citizens to freely and fairly express their will at the ballot box... a pattern of intimidation and the suppression of independent voices... was evident throughout the campaign." The heads of all 25 EU countries declared that the election was "fundamentally flawed". In contrast, the Russian minister of foreign affairs declared, "Long before the elections, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights had declared that they [the elections] would be illegitimate and it was pretty biased in its commentaries on their progress and results, thus playing an instigating role." Lukashenko later stated that he had rigged the election results, but against himself, in order to obtain a majority more typical of European countries. Although he had won 93.5% of the vote, he said, he had directed the government to announce a result of 86%.
Some Russian nationalists, such as Dmitry Rogozin and the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, stated that they would like to see Lukashenko become President of Russia in 2008. Lukashenko responded that he would not run for the Russian presidency, but that if his health was still good, he might run for reelection in 2011.
In September 2008, parliamentary elections were held. Lukashenko had allowed some opposition candidates to stand, though in the official results, opposition members failed to get any of the 110 available seats. OSCE observers described the vote as "flawed", including "several cases of deliberate falsification of results". Opposition members and supporters demonstrated in protest. According to the Nizhny Novgorod-based CIS election observation mission, the findings of which are often dismissed by the West, the elections in Belarus conformed to international standards. Lukashenko later commented that the opposition in Belarus was financed by foreign countries and was not needed.
In April 2009, he held talks with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican, Lukashenko's first visit to Western Europe after a travel ban on him a decade earlier.
In August 2009, during a working trip to the Vitebsk Region, Lukashenko announced a program for the revival of Belarusian potato production, saying: "We will finish working on a special program, we will decide how many potatoes we need for the domestic market, how many potatoes we can sell" and that "we'll bring back this crop that is very valuable to us". Later, Lukashenko received the nickname "potato führer" from his detractors.
Fourth term (2010–2015)
Lukashenko was one of ten candidates registered for the presidential election held in Belarus on 19 December 2010. Though originally envisaged for 2011, an earlier date was approved "to ensure the maximum participation of citizens in the electoral campaign and to set the most convenient time for the voters." The run-up to the campaign was marked by a series of Russian media attacks on Lukashenko. The Central Election Committee said that all nine opposition figures were likely to receive less than half the vote total that Lukashenko would receive. Though opposition figures alleged intimidation and that "dirty tricks" were being played, the election was seen as comparatively open as a result of the desire to improve relations with both Europe and the US.
On election day, two presidential candidates were seriously beaten by police in different opposition rallies. On the night of the election, opposition protesters chanting "Out!", "Long live Belarus!" and other similar slogans attempted to storm the building of the government of Belarus, smashing windows and doors before riot police were able to push them back. The number of protesters was reported by major news media as being around or above 10,000 people. At least seven of the opposition presidential candidates were arrested.
Several of the opposition candidates, along with their supporters and members of the media, were arrested. Many were sent to prison, often on charges of organising a mass disturbance. Examples include Andrei Sannikov, Alexander Otroschenkov, Ales Michalevic, Mikola Statkevich, and Uladzimir Nyaklyayew. Sannikov's wife, journalist Irina Khalip, was put under house arrest. Yaraslau Ramanchuk's party leader, Anatoly Lebedko, was also arrested.
The CEC said that Lukashenko won 79.65% of the vote (he gained 5,130,557 votes) with 90.65% of the electorate voting. The OSCE categorised the elections as "flawed," while the CIS mission observers approved the results as legitimate. However, the OSCE also stated that some improvements were made in the run-up to the election, including the candidates' use of television debates and the ability to deliver their messages unhindered. Several European foreign ministers issued a joint statement calling the election and its aftermath an "unfortunate step backwards in the development of democratic governance and respect for human rights in Belarus."
EU ambassadors boycotted Lukashenko's inauguration ceremony of 22 January 2011, and only thirty-two foreign diplomats attended. During this ceremony, Lukashenko defended the legitimacy of his re-election and vowed that Belarus would never have its own version of the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine or Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution.
Effective 31 January 2011, the EU renewed a travel ban, prohibiting Lukashenko and 156 of his associates from traveling to EU member countries, as a result of the crackdown on opposition supporters.
Lukashenko was supportive of China's Belt and Road Initiative global infrastructure development strategy, and the inception in 2012 of the associated low-tax China–Belarus Industrial Park near Minsk National Airport, planned to grow to 112 square kilometres (43 sq mi) by the 2060s.
Fifth term (2015–2020)
On 11 October 2015, Lukashenko was elected for his fifth term as the president of Belarus. Just over three weeks later, he was inaugurated in the Independence Palace in the presence of attendees such as former president of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, Chairman of the Russian Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov, and Belarusian biathlete Darya Domracheva. In mid-September 2017, Lukashenko oversaw the advancement of joint Russian and Belarusian military relations during the military drills that were part of the Zapad 2017 exercise.
In August 2018, Lukashenko fired his prime minister, Andrei Kobyakov, and several other officials due to a corruption scandal. Eventually, Sergei Rumas was appointed prime minister as successor to Kobyakov. In May 2017, Lukashenko signed a decree on the Foundation of the Directorate of the 2019 European Games in Minsk.
In April 2019, Lukashenko announced that the games were on budget and on time, and eventually, he opened the 2nd edition of the event on 21 June. Between 1–3 July 2019, he oversaw the country's celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Minsk Offensive, which culminated in an evening military parade of the Armed Forces of Belarus on the last day, which is the country's Independence Day.In August 2019, Lukashenko met with former Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who has lived in exile in Minsk since 2010, in the Palace of Independence to mark Bakiyev's 70th birthday, which he had marked several days earlier. The meeting, which included the presentation of traditional flowers and symbolic gifts, angered the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry, which stated that the meeting "fundamentally does not meet the principles of friendship and cooperation between the two countries." In November 2019, Lukashenko visited the Austrian capital, Vienna, on a state visit, which was his first in three years to an EU country. During the visit, he met with President Alexander Van der Bellen, Chancellor Brigitte Bierlein, and National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka. He also paid his respects at the Soviet War Memorial at the Schwarzenbergplatz.
During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, he undertook two working visits to Russia, one of the few European leaders to undertake foreign visits during the pandemic. He also received Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán on the latter's state visit to Minsk. During this visit, Orbán called for an end to EU sanctions on Belarus. His first visit to Russia was to attend the rescheduled Moscow Victory Day Parade on Red Square together with his son.
Sixth term (2020–2025)
On 9 August 2020, according to the preliminary count, Lukashenko was re-elected for his sixth term as the president of Belarus. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that the election was "not free [or] fair".
Mass protests erupted across Belarus following the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, which was marred by allegations of widespread electoral fraud. Subsequently, opposition presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya claimed she had received between 60 and 70% of the vote and formed a Coordination Council to facilitate the peaceful and orderly transfer of power in Belarus.
On 15 August 2020, Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius referred to Lukashenko as the "former president" of Belarus. It was reported that President Lukashenko's authorities asked Kremlin representatives about the possibility of Lukashenko escaping to Russia. Furthermore, it was reported that Russia admits that Lukashenko's resignation from the post of head of state is likely.
On 17 August 2020, the members of the European Parliament issued a joint statement which stated that they do not recognise Alexander Lukashenko as the president of Belarus, considering him to be persona non grata in the European Union. On 19 August, the member states of the European Union agreed not to recognise the results and issued a statement saying "The 9 August elections were neither free nor fair, therefore we do not recognise the results." The governments of the United States, United Kingdom and Canada have also refused to recognise the results. In an interview on 22 August, Josep Borrell explicitly stated that the European Union does not recognise Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus in the same manner that it does not recognise Nicolás Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
On 23 August 2020, footage emerged showing Lukashenko at the Independence Palace in Minsk. In the first two videos, he is seen walking near a helicopter, wearing a bulletproof vest and holding an AKS-74U assault rifle, and then walking around the palace grounds. In the latter footage, Lukashenko was heard to say, "Leave me alone," and "There is no one left there, right?" His 15-year-old son, Nikolai, was seen with him dressed in military uniform and holding a gun.
In a third video, he is seen surveying protestors from a helicopter and is heard saying "How the rats ran away" in an apparent reference to the protesters. In a fourth video, Lukashenko was seen removing the former flag of Belarus from a flower bed, waving at security personnel, and, in reference to protesters, saying, "We will deal with them." On 30 August, the Independence Palace became again a scene of protests. When questioned about the whereabouts of Alexander Lukashenko on this day, his publicity team released an undated photograph of him walking around the grounds of the Independence Palace holding a gun.
On 23 September 2020, Lukashenko was secretly inaugurated president for a sixth term in a ceremony at the Palace of Independence attended by an invited group of 700 guests.
On 27 November 2020, Lukashenko announced that he would resign once Belarus' new constitution was adopted.
In December, the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to exclude until further notice all members of the Belarusian Olympic Committee from all IOC events, specifically targeting Lukashenko who was elected as its chairman in 1997.
On 17 April 2021, Russia's FSB security service exposed an alleged military coup and assassination attempt of Lukashenko. Russia also stated that it prevented Lukashenko's murder. Two suspects, who were detained at Lukashenko's request, were Alyaksandr Feduta and Yuras Zyankovich. Both are critics of Lukashenko, with the latter being a dual US-Belarusian citizen, despite Belarus not recognising dual citizenship.
On 24 April 2021, Lukashenko announced that he would sign a decree to amend emergency transfer of power. "I will sign a decree about how the power in Belarus will be set up. If the President is shot the security council will get the power." Lukashenko is the head of the Security Council himself; however, his eldest son, Victor Lukashenko, is regarded as its informal leader. This move was seen to empower his son, to be in the perfect position to succeed him in the next elections. Under current law, the prime minister assumes the presidential powers if the presidency becomes vacant, but Lukashenko said that the prime minister will only become the nominal leader and all decisions would be taken by the 20-person security council, by secret ballot.