After five years of inflicting an unprecedented crackdown on the press, Alexander Lukashenko is set to run for a seventh presidential term on Sunday, 26 January. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Belarusian leader for crimes against humanity,

Having missed almost four years of her son's life while incarcerated in a Belarusian prison, Irina Schastnaya still wants to zip up the 14-year-old's coat, struggling to digest how tall he grew in her absence.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for over 30 years, is poised to extend his rule in an election that concludes Sunday and that the opposition dismisses as a farce.

Five candidates' names will appear on the ballot for a presidential election in Belarus on Sunday, but for the past 31 years there has only been one winner. In power since 1994, Alexander Lukashenko is assured of a new five-year term in a vote that the exiled opposition describes as a sham.

Belarusians vote on Sunday in a presidential election to extend Alexander Lukashenko's 30-year stranglehold on power in which he has crushed all opposition and helped his ally Russia invade Ukraine.

Belarus under Lukashenko has become embroiled in the battle between NATO-backed Western Europe and Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Meanwhile, Belarus’ record on human rights – and its complicity in Russia’s war in Ukraine – have led to extensive sanctions and diplomatic isolation of the Eastern European nation, worsening the life of its people.

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of playing games with the West by drip-feeding releases of political prisoners ahead of an election on Sunday in which he is set to extend his 31-year rule.

Russian troops used Belarus as a staging ground during their February 2022 assault on Kyiv. Meanwhile, Lukashenko has boasted that Belarus is playing host to dozens of Russian nuclear weapons, and revealed in December that he was anticipating the arrival of new hypersonic missiles .

Belarus is set for a presidential election on Sunday, with five candidates on the ballot but no real contest. Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, is expected to secure another five-year term, a result the

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya criticizes Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's pre-election release of political prisoners as a deceitful tactic to appeal to the West. She urges the cessation of repression and the release of all prisoners,

Russian, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko casts himself as a plain-spoken strongman and "president of the ordinary people".A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko seems unbothered by his characterisation as a ruthless autocrat,

Today, all the key opposition figures from the period are in prison or have fled abroad, like Tikhanovskaya. Former protesters still in Belarus have been scared into silence. So the opposition leader is not urging them to take to the streets again on Sunday.