Wall Street Wizardry
  • Business
  • World News
  • Politics
  • Investing
  • Business
  • World News
  • Politics
  • Investing

Wall Street Wizardry

World News

Belarus president set to extend 30-year rule as critics slam ‘sham’ election

by admin January 26, 2025
January 26, 2025
Belarus president set to extend 30-year rule as critics slam ‘sham’ election

Belarusians are voting in a closely managed presidential election that is all but certain to extend the rule of Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994 and Europe’s longest-serving leader.

The last time Belarus held a presidential election in 2020, Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory with more than 80% of the vote. The opposition cried foul, claiming that Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was the rightful winner. Hundreds of thousands protested in the capital, Minsk, sparking the harshest crackdown in the country’s post-Soviet history.

This year, with voting underway, Tsikhanouskaya is not asking Belarusians to take to the streets again. The costs are too high, she says.

She should know. Since the brutal regime response in 2020, Tsikhanouskaya has lived in exile with her two children. Human rights activists say Belarus is holding more than 1,200 political prisoners, including Tsikhanouskaya’s husband, Sergei, whom she has been unable to contact for nearly two years.

Tsikhanouskaya only ran in 2020 after her husband was jailed and prevented from running. Perhaps underestimating the political novice, Lukashenko allowed Tsikhanouskaya to run against him – an oversight that led to the greatest threat he faced in his decades-long rule.

Now, Lukashenko is facing only token challengers, one of whom has said he is running “not instead of, but alongside the president.” For the first time, no independent observers will monitor the vote and polling stations abroad will not be open, depriving some 3.5 million citizens outside the country of their vote.

While not calling for large-scale demonstrations, Tsikhanouskaya has urged Belarusians to voice their dissent at the ballot box.

“We’re asking those forced to take part in this sham election to vote against all candidates,” she wrote on Telegram.

Tsikhanouskaya’s opposition movement has said the “elections” are merely “a meticulously orchestrated charade designed to perpetuate the illegitimate dictator’s grip on power.” The European Parliament and US State Department have also labelled the election a “sham.”

“Repression is born of weakness, not strength. The unprecedented measures to stifle any opposition make it clear that the Lukashenko regime fears its own people,” the State Department said last week.

After casting his ballot Sunday, Lukashenko told journalists he did not care whether the West recognizes Belarus’ election or not.

Lukashenko, a 70-year-old former Soviet collective farm boss, survived the scare in 2020 in part thanks to his longtime ally Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose support has become existential for the Belarusian regime.

After state media employees resigned in solidarity with the opposition, Putin sent Kremlin propagandists to replace them. Since then, Minsk’s dependence on Moscow has only deepened.

But Moscow has been exacting a price for its support. Russia used Belarus as a launch pad for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Lukashenko has since allowed Russia to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil. In December, Lukashenko said he was also preparing to receive Russia’s new ballistic missile, the “Oreshnik,” first used in a strike on Ukraine late last year.

Although Lukashenko is “more dependent on Russia and on Putin personally than ever before,” there may be limits to this alliance, said Gould-Davies, now a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank.

“Belarus has provided a wide range of valuable services to Russia, but the thing of course that it hasn’t done is send its own forces (to Ukraine),” he said, suggesting he may fear a backlash among his own troops or wider population if he did so.

“Ordinary Belarusians, emphatically, do not see this as their war, and they could not be persuaded that it is, no matter how much propaganda the Belarusian state were to pump out to them,” he said.

Since 2020, Lukashenko’s regime has stepped up its efforts to stamp out dissent. By the end of December 2024, Belarus was holding 1,265 political prisoners, according to Viasna, a human rights group.

Among them is Ales Bialiatski, the founder of Viasna who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, alongside human rights groups from Russia and Ukraine, for his documentation of rights abuses. The oldest prisoner is Mikhail Liapeika, 76, who was sent for compulsory psychiatric treatment after insulting Lukashenko.

Pavel Sapelka, a lawyer with Viasna, has said many detainees are held in conditions and subjected to treatment that amounts to “torture.”

Lukashenko will be 74 if he completes his seventh term in office. But he has given no indication that he intends to step down. “As long as I have health, I will stay with you,” he said during a visit to a church outside Minsk earlier this month.

Last week, Lukashenko mocked opposition leaders he said were waiting for him to “drop dead.”

“They say: ‘He is about to die, his voice is not the same, he has trouble speaking.’ Don’t hold your breath,” Lukashenko said.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

previous post
Three killed as residents of southern Lebanon defy Israeli orders not to return home
next post
Oświęcim’s sole Jewish resident reflects on modern antisemitism on 80th anniversary of Auschwitz camp’s liberation

Related Posts

Afghan pilots who fought in 20-year war against...

March 29, 2025

Italian prime minister says she is being investigated...

January 29, 2025

Ecuador’s president invites foreign armies to fight gangs...

March 20, 2025

Thailand receives 260 victims of human trafficking from...

February 14, 2025

A fiery collision in the North Sea has...

March 11, 2025

Ecuador votes for its next president amid deadly...

April 14, 2025

France to distribute ‘survival manual’ to prepare households...

March 20, 2025

These dragon’s blood trees exist in only one...

May 19, 2025

Global scam industry evolving at ‘unprecedented scale’ despite...

April 3, 2025

‘I was really shocked’: Body placed next to...

February 26, 2025

    Join our mailing list to get access to special deals, promotions, and insider information. Your exclusive benefits await! Enjoy personalized recommendations, first dibs on sales, and members-only content that makes you feel like a true VIP. Sign up now and start saving!


    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Editors’ Picks

    • 1

      Financial Agreement signed releasing $2M grant

      January 23, 2025
    • 2

      Netflix shares soar as company reports surging revenue, tops 300 million subscribers

      January 23, 2025
    • 3

      US security contractor will take charge of key checkpoint in Gaza as Israeli forces withdraw

      January 25, 2025
    • 4

      Trump re-designates Iranian-backed Houthis as terrorists: ‘Threaten[s] security of American civilians’

      January 23, 2025
    • 5

      Cyclopharm Signs US Agreement with HCA Healthcare for Technegas®

      January 23, 2025
    • 6

      FDA officially authorizes Zyn nicotine pouches for sale following health review

      January 23, 2025
    • 7

      Universal’s ‘Wicked: For Good’ creates a unique marketing challenge

      January 26, 2025
    • About us
    • Contacts
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Email Whitelisting

    Disclaimer: wallstreetwizardry.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.


    Copyright © 2025 wallstreetwizardry.com | All Rights Reserved