Alexander Lukashenko

FILE - Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, centre, holds a portrait of her jailed husband Syarhey Tsikhanousky attending a protest demanding freedom for political prisoners in Belarus, in front of the Belarus Embassy, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Friday, March 8, 2024. Belarus’ exiled opposition leader said Thursday, May 2, 2024, that she hasn’t heard from her imprisoned husband for 421 days. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)

Exiled Belarus opposition leader says she hasn’t heard from her imprisoned husband for over 400 days

Belarus’ exiled opposition leader says that she hasn’t heard from her imprisoned husband for 421 days.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko pose for a photo during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 11, 2024. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Hackers claim to have infiltrated Belarus’ main security service

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks to the Space crew members of the 21st visiting expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, left, and the first Belarusian cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya during their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, April 12, 2024. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Belarus convicts a famous dissident rock band and sentences its members to correctional labor

FILE - In this photo provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks to military personnel during his visit to Oshmyany District, Grodno region of Belarus on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Three activists of Viasna, the main human rights group in Belarus, have been arrested and charged with participating in an extremist organization, state television reported Thursday, April 4. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP, File)

3 human rights activists arrested in Belarus as a crackdown on the opposition persists

FILE - This photo taken on Monday, March 12, 2018 and released by svaboda.org RFE/RL shows Belarusian journalist Ihar Karnei, who was arrested in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, on July 17, 2023. Ihar Karnei, a prominent independent journalist went on trial in Belarus on Tuesday March 19, 2024 on extremism charges widely seen as politically motivated. (svaboda.org RFE/RL Photo via AP, File)

An imprisoned journalist in Belarus designated a political prisoner by a leading rights group

Putin discusses Ukraine with Lukashenko, mocks upcoming peace conference hosted by Switzerland

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday mocked a planned round of Ukraine peace talks in Switzerland, warning that Moscow would not accept any enforced agreements ignoring its interests. Switzerland’s government said Wednesday it would host a high-level international conference in June to help chart a path toward peace in Ukraine after more than two years of fighting, and expressed hope that Russia would join the peace process someday.

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Lukashenko: Putin not to blame for plane crash believed to have killed Prigozhin

Belarus says Wagner fighters training its troops

Belarus says Wagner Chief Prigozhin is in Russia

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A political prisoner in Belarus smuggles out account of beatings after writing on toilet paper

A political prisoner in Belarus has shed light on the country’s brutal prison system by smuggling out her story written on pieces of toilet paper.

Man awaiting trial for insulting Belarusian president dies in jail

A Belarusian man who was in jail awaiting trial on charges of insulting the authoritarian president has died in custody.

FILE - Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during a meeting of the Union State Supreme Council with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. A bill in Belarus that would outlaw the promotion of homosexuality and other behavior is set to land on lawmakers' desks amid an unwavering crackdown on dissent initiated by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in 2020. (Pavel Bednyakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Belarusian authorities confirm raids against opposition activists over new ‘people’s embassies’

Belarusian authorities say they have launched dozens of raids to target those suspected of “extremist” activities in new efforts by the political opposition to create “people’s embassies” abroad.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, centre, holds a portrait of her jailed husband Syarhey Tsikhanousky attending a protest demanding freedom for political prisoners in Belarus, in front of the Belarus Embassy, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Friday, March 8, 2024. The European Council on Foreign Relations indicates that there are currently over 1,400 political prisoners in Belarusian prisons. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Exiled Belarus opposition leader demands news of her imprisoned husband

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Friday marched to the country’s embassy in Lithuania, holding a photo of her imprisoned husband and demanding information about him after a year of being incommunicado.

FILE - Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during a meeting of the Union State Supreme Council with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. A bill in Belarus that would outlaw the promotion of homosexuality and other behavior is set to land on lawmakers' desks amid an unwavering crackdown on dissent initiated by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in 2020. (Pavel Bednyakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Thousands of Belarusians convicted on politically driven charges in sweeping crackdown on dissent

Thousands of Belarusians have been convicted on politically driven charges over the last three years as part of a relentless crackdown on dissent.

FILE - Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during a meeting of the Union State Supreme Council with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. A bill in Belarus that would outlaw the promotion of homosexuality and other behavior is set to land on lawmakers' desks amid an unwavering crackdown on dissent initiated by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in 2020. (Pavel Bednyakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Belarusian lawmakers to soon consider anti-LGBTQ+ bill

A bill in Belarus that would outlaw the promotion of homosexuality and other behavior is set to land on lawmakers’ desks amid an unwavering crackdown on dissent initiated by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in August 2020.

UN experts call on authorities in Belarus to pardon a cancer-stricken imprisoned opposition leader

Experts from the U.N. Human Rights Commission have appealed to Belarusian authorities Monday to pardon an opposition politician diagnosed with a severe form of cancer while in prison.

In this photo provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko addresses the media after voting at a polling station, in Minsk, Belarus, on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. Lukashenko was believed a few years ago to be considering whether to lead the new body after stepping down, but his calculus has apparently changed, and he announced on Sunday that he will run in next year's presidential election. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP)

Belarus’ election reinforces the authoritarian leader’s 30-year rule. Only loyalists could run

Belarusian authorities have announced preliminary results from parliamentary and local elections in which only candidates loyal to the country’s authoritarian leader were allowed to compete.

In this photo provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, right, presents flowers to an election commission official ahead of voting at a polling station, in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. Lukashenko was believed a few years ago to be considering whether to lead the new body after stepping down, but his calculus has apparently changed, and he announced on Sunday that he will run in next year's presidential election. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP)

Belarusians vote in a tightly controlled election as the opposition calls for its boycott

Tightly controlled parliamentary and local elections in Belarus are set to cement the hard-line rule of the country’s authoritarian leader, despite a prominent opposition leader’s call for a boycott.

The Rev. Viachaslau Barok, a Catholic priest from Belarus, conducts a service in the Church of St. Alexander in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. Barok was a familiar face in Rasony, a town in northern Belarus near the Russian border, overseeing construction of its Roman Catholic church and celebrating Mass daily for two decades before he fled the country as the Belarusian government cracked down on dissent. (Validated UGC via AP)

Belarus cracks down on clergy who supported protests of its authoritarian leader

Dozens of clergy in Belarus — Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant — have been jailed, silenced or forced into exile for protesting the 2020 election that gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term.

In this photo provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks in Minsk, Belarus, on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024. Lukashenko alleged that Western countries have sought to foment mass protests after the Feb. 25 parliamentary elections to destabilize Belarus. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP)

As Belarus votes in tightly controlled elections, its leader accuses the West of fueling unrest

The authoritarian leader of Belarus has accused the West of trying to foment protests during parliamentary and local elections this month in order to undermine his rule, while the country’s opposition leader-in-exile has called for a boycott of the vote.

FILE - Belarus opposition activists Maria Kolesnikova, right, and Maxim Znak attend a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus, on Monday, Sept. 6, 2021. It's been a year since Kolesnikova last wrote a letter to her family from behind bars, according to her father. No one has seen or heard from Kolesnikova, who is serving 11 years in prison for organizing anti-government rallies, since Feb. 12, 2023. (Ramil Nasibulin/BelTA pool photo via AP, File)

The family of imprisoned Belarusian opposition figure hasn’t heard from her for a year

The family of imprisoned Belarusian opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova says it hasn’t received a letter from her for a year.

Belarusian journalist accused of being in an extremist group after covering protests gets prison

A Belarusian journalist has been sentenced to three years in prison on charges related to his work covering protests.

Rights group reports more arrests as Belarus intensifies crackdown on dissent

A Belarusian rights group is reporting dozens more home raids and arrests in the latest intensification of a years-long crackdown on dissent in Belarus.

Rights center says Belarusian authorities have arrested scores of people in latest crackdown

A local human rights center says Belarusian authorities have arrested several dozen people in raids marking the latest in a relentless crackdown on dissent.

This undated photo from the Viasna Human Rights Center shows Belarus' political activist Vadzim Khrasko posing for a photo. A political prisoner has died in prison in Belarus after prison authorities failed to provide him with due medical care, the death that has spotlighted cruel conditions in the country's prisons. The respected Viasna human rights center said Monday Jan. 15, 2024 that Vadzim Khrasko died of pneumonia in a penal colony near the northeastern city of Vitebsk after prison authorities had been slow to take him to a hospital, ignoring his pleas for help. (Viasna Human Rights Center via AP)

Belarus political prisoner dies after authorities fail to provide him with medical care, group says

A human rights group says that a political prisoner has died in prison in Belarus after authorities failed to provide him with proper medical care.

Belarusian journalist goes on trial for covering protests, faces up to 6 years in prison

A Belarusian journalist has gone on trial on charges linked to his professional work covering protests.

Belarus sends children from occupied Ukraine for training with Belarusian army

Belarus state television says that Belarusian authorities sent a recently arrived group of Ukrainian children from occupied Ukraine to train with the Belarusian military to learn how to evacuate in the event of a fire. 35 children from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Antratsyt in eastern Ukra

FILE - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko listens, during his meeting with foreign correspondents, in Minsk, Belarus, on July 6, 2023. Belarusian authorities on Monday Jan. 8, 2024 said they will not invite observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to monitor the country's parliamentary and local elections, scheduled for Feb. 25. The move is the latest authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has undertaken in recent years to further cement his control over the country's political institutions. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Belarus refuses to invite OSCE observers to monitor this year’s parliamentary election

Belarusian authorities have announced a decision not to invite observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to monitor elections that are scheduled for Feb. 25.

In this photo provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko attends the New Year Eve's children's charity event held as part of the country's charity campaign Our Children, in the Palace of the Republic in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP)

Belarus’ authoritarian leader tightens control over the country’s religious groups

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a law into effect that significantly tightens control over various religious denominations and organizations.

In this photo provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko attends the New Year Eve's children's charity event held as part of the country's charity campaign Our Children, in the Palace of the Republic in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP)

President of Belarus gives himself immunity from prosecution and limits potential challengers

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has signed a new law that gives him lifelong immunity from criminal prosecution and prevents opposition leaders living abroad from running in future presidential elections.

FILE - Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo prior to a session of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023. Belarus’ authoritarian leader has attended a meeting with children from Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine, openly defying an international outrage over his country’s involvement in Moscow’s deportation of Ukrainian children. President Alexander Lukashenko spoke during a meeting on Thursday marking the arrival of a new group of Ukrainian children ahead of the New Year holiday. (Konstantin Zavrazhin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

More Ukrainian children from Ukraine’s Russia-held regions arrive in Belarus despite global outrage

Belarus’ authoritarian leader has attended a meeting with children from Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine, openly defying an international outrage over his country’s involvement in Moscow’s deportation of Ukrainian children.

In this handout photo from the Viasna Human Rights Center, Leanid Sudalenka, an activist from Belarus, holds portraits of imprisoned journalists Larysa Shchyrakova and Yauhen Merkis, in Belostok, Poland, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. Sudalenka, who was imprisoned for three years in Belarus, said authorities there hold political prisoners in conditions amounting to "torture." He told The Associated Press that when he was in a Belarusian penal colony, he nearly died from COVID-19 and a lack of medical care. (Viasna Human Rights Center via AP)

Belarus political prisoners face abuse, no medical care and isolation, former inmate says

A human rights activist imprisoned for three years in Belarus accused authorities of holding political prisoners in conditions amounting to “torture.”

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko speaks during a plenary session at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Dec. 1, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

2 journalists are detained in Belarus as part of a crackdown on dissent

A Belarusian journalists association has reported that two journalists have been detained in Belarus.

Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko attends a session of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023. (Valery Sharifulin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Belarus raids apartments of opposition activists as part of sweeping probe called latest crackdown

Belarus’ top state criminal investigation agency says it has conducted raids as part of a sweeping probe into an alleged attempt by the opposition to seize power three years ago.

In Belarus, a dissident novelist’s father is jailed for two weeks for reposting an article

A noted Belarusian dissident author says his father has been sentenced to two weeks in jail for reposting an article from an opposition website.

The father of a dissident Belarusian novelist has been arrested in Minsk

A prominent Belarusian dissident author who lives abroad says that his father has been arrested on unclear grounds after police broke into his parents’ apartment.

Exiled Belarus opposition activist Pavel Latushka reads from a file after he presented evidence to the International Criminal Court's prosecution office alleging the personal involvement of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko in the illegal transfer of children to Belarus from Russian-occupied towns in Ukraine, outside the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Mike Corder)

Activist hands ICC evidence he says implicates Belarus president in transfer of Ukrainian children

An exiled Belarus activist has presented a second dossier of evidence to the International Criminal Court that he says proves the personal involvement of President Alexander Lukashenko in the illegal transfer of children to Belarus from Russian-occupied towns in Ukraine.

Two Belarusian passports are displayed in Tallinn, Estonia, on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. Belarus has stopped renewing passports at its embassies abroad, and hundreds of thousands of Belarusians who have fled President Alexander Lukashenko's repressive regime cannot update their travel documents without returning home and risking possible arrest. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Belarusians who fled repression face new hurdles as they try to rebuild their lives abroad

Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians who fled repression in their homeland face the prospect of having invalid documents after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree halting passport renewals abroad.

Belarus leader asks Hungary’s Orban to visit and seeks a dialogue with EU amid country’s isolation

The authoritarian president of Belarus has invited Hungary’s prime minister to visit his country. President Alexander Lukashenko extended the invitation to Prime Minister Viktor Orban at a meeting on Friday with Hungary’s foreign minister, who arrived in Belarus earlier this week.