Alexander Lukashenka

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.

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%.

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.

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.

Seventh term (2025–present)

Lukashenko was re-elected in the 2025 Belarusian presidential election on 26 January, with official results showing that he had won around 88% of the vote. He was inaugurated for his seventh term as president on 25 March.

In April 2025, after meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Minsk, Lukashenko announced a plan to open Belarus to 150,000 migrant workers from Pakistan. Lukashenko's migration plans have raised concerns in neighboring Poland and among the Belarusian public.

In August 2025, Lukashenko announced that he was "not planning" to seek another term at the next election and also dismissed speculations of grooming his son, Nikolai, to succeed him as president.

Domestic policy

The political system created by Lukashenko has become colloquially known as "Lukashism" or "Lukashenkoism". John Sweeney summarised Lukashism as "a mutant version of the Soviet Union's deal with its people: they pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work; we pretend to vote for him; he pretends that the vote is fair."

Lukashenko promotes himself as a "man of the people." Lukashenko wanted to rebuild Belarus when he took office; the economy was in free-fall due to declining industry and lack of demand for Belarusian goods. Lukashenko kept many industries under the control of the government. In 2001, he stated his intention to improve the social welfare of his citizens and to make Belarus "powerful and prosperous."

With the ascent to power of Lukashenko in 1994, the Russification policy of the Russian Imperial and Soviet era was renewed. In 2006, Lukashenko said that people who speak Belarusian language cannot do anything, because nothing great can be expressed in the Belarusian language as it is a poor language, whereas there are only two great languages in the world: Russian and English.

Since the November 1996 referendum, Lukashenko has effectively held all governing power in the nation. Under the Constitution, if the House of Representatives rejects his choice for prime minister twice, he has the right to dissolve it. His decrees have greater weight than ordinary legislation. He also has near-absolute control over government spending; parliament can only increase or decrease spending with his permission. However, the legislature is dominated by his supporters in any event, and there is no substantive opposition to presidential decisions. Indeed, every seat in the lower house has been held by pro-Lukashenko MPs for all but one term since 2004. He also appoints eight members of the upper house, the Council of the Republic, as well as nearly all judges.

Lukashenko's early economic policies aimed to prevent issues that have occurred in other post-Soviet states, such as the establishment of oligarchic structures and mass unemployment. The unemployment rate for the country at the end of 2011 was at 0.6% of the population (of 6.86 million eligible workers), a decrease from 1995, when unemployment was 2.9% with a working-eligible population of 5.24 million. The per-capita gross national income rose from US$1,423 (equivalent to $3,172 in 2025) in 1993 to US$5,830 (equivalent to $6,927 in 2025) at the end of 2011.

Political repression

On 1 September 2020, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) declared that its experts received reports of 450 documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of people who were arrested during the protests following the presidential election. The experts also received reports of violence against women and children, including sexual abuse and rape with rubber batons. According to the OHCHR, both male and female detainees were subjected to rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence. Medical records reviewed by OHCHR indicate lesions and other injuries to the male genitalia associated with forcible twisting and rape. Psychological violence, including threats of rape, was also used against detainees.

At least three detainees suffered injuries indicative of sexual violence in Okrestino prison in Minsk or on the way there. The victims were hospitalised with intramuscular bleeding of the rectum, anal fissure and bleeding, and damage to the mucous membrane of the rectum.

In an interview from September 2020 Lukashenko claimed that detainees faked their bruises, saying, "Some of the girls there had their butts painted in blue". In November 2021, however, Lukashenko confirmed in an interview to the BBC that people were beaten in Okrestino, saying: "OK, OK, I admit it, I admit it. People were beaten in the Okrestina Detention Centre. But there were police beaten up too and you didn't show this."

In January 2021, an audio recording was released in which the commander of internal troops and deputy interior minister of Belarus Mikalai Karpiankou tells security forces that they can cripple, maim and kill protesters in order to make them understand their actions. This, he says, is justified because anyone who takes to the streets is participating in a kind of guerrilla warfare. In addition, he discussed the establishment of camps, surrounded by barbed wire, where protesters will be detained until the situation calms down. A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry stamped the audio file as a fake.

However, a phonoscopic examination of the audio recording confirmed that the voice on the recording belongs to Karpiankou. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressed its concern about the remarks. According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, such a camp was indeed used near the town of Slutsk in the days from 13 to 15 August 2020. Many of those detained there are said to have been brought from the Okrestina prison in Minsk.

Foreign policy

In the 1990s, Lukashenko and the then-Russian president Boris Yeltsin envisaged the formation of a Union State. Yeltsin suffered from poor health and alcoholism, which induced Lukashenko into thinking that he would lead both states. But after Yeltsin anointed Putin as his successor, Lukashenko stalled the merger.

Lukashenko's relationship with Russia, once his powerful ally and vocal supporter, has significantly deteriorated. The run-up to the 2010 Belarusian presidential election was marked by a series of Russian media attacks on Lukashenko. Throughout July state-controlled channel NTV broadcast a multi-part documentary entitled "The Godfather" highlighting the suspicious disappearance of the opposition leaders Yury Zacharanka and Viktar Hanchar, businessman Anatol Krasouski and journalist Dzmitry Zavadski during the late 1990s. Lukashenko called the media attack "dirty propaganda".

Despite a historically good relationship with Russia, tensions between Lukashenko and the Russian government started showing in 2020. On 24 January 2020, Lukashenko publicly accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of trying to make Belarus a part of Russia. This led to Russia cutting economic subsidies for Belarus. In July 2020, the relationship between Belarus and Russia was described as "strained" after 33 Russian military contractors were arrested in Minsk.

Lukashenko afterwards accused Russia of collaborating with opposition activist Siarhei Tsikhanouski and trying to cover up an attempt to send 200 fighters from a private Russian military firm known as the Wagner Group into Belarus on a mission to destabilise the country ahead of its 9 August presidential election. On 5 August 2020, Russia's security chief Dmitry Medvedev warned Belarus to release the contractors. Lukashenko also claimed Russia was lying about its attempts to use the Wagner Group to influence the upcoming election.

On 11 November 2021, Lukashenko raised the possibility of interrupting the Yamal–Europe pipeline carrying Russian gas to the European Union if the bloc imposes further sanctions on Belarus. Putin said that Lukashenko had not consulted him before raising the possibility of stopping gas deliveries coming from Russia to the EU via a pipeline through Belarus, adding that such a move would risk harming ties between Belarus and Russia.

Public life

Controversial statements

Lukashenko has made several controversial statements during his presidency which have been regarded as antisemitic, homophobic and misogynistic.

In 1995, Lukashenko made a remark in which he named Adolf Hitler as a role model for his presidential system in Belarus: "The history of Germany is a copy of the history of Belarus. Germany was raised from ruins thanks to firm authority and not everything connected with that well-known figure Hitler was bad. German order evolved over the centuries and attained its peak under Hitler. This corresponds with our understanding of a presidential republic and the role of a president in it." Lukashenko refused to take the quote back, but stated that the consequences of Hitler's leadership style in foreign policy had been bad.

In October 2007, Lukashenko was accused of making antisemitic comments; addressing the "miserable state of the city of Babruysk" on a live broadcast on state radio, he stated: "This is a Jewish city, and the Jews are not concerned for the place they live in. They have turned Babruysk into a pigsty. Look at Israel—I was there and saw it myself [...] I call on Jews who have money to come back to Babruysk." Members of the US House of Representatives sent a letter to the Belarusian ambassador to the US, Mikhail Khvostov, addressing Lukashenko's comments with a strong request to retract them, and the comments also caused a negative reaction from Israel.

Consequently, Pavel Yakubovich, editor of Belarus Today, was sent to Israel, and in a meeting with the Israel Foreign Ministry said that Lukashenko's comment was "a mistake that was said jokingly, and does not represent his positions regarding the Jewish people" and that he was "anything but anti-Semitic," and had been "insulted by the mere accusation." The Belarusian Ambassador to Israel, Igor Leshchenya, stated that the president had a "kind attitude toward the Jewish people", and Sergei Rychenko, the press secretary at the Belarusian Embassy in Tel Aviv, said parts of Lukashenko's comments had been mistranslated.

On 4 March 2012, two days after EU leaders (including openly gay German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle) had called for new measures to pressure Lukashenko over alleged human rights abuses in Belarus at a summit in Brussels, Lukashenko provoked diplomatic rebuke from Germany after commenting that it was "better to be a dictator than gay" in response to Westerwelle having referred to him as "Europe's last dictator" during the meeting.

Public opinion

Independent polling is tightly restricted in Belarus. Surveys are monopolised by the government, which either does not publish its surveys or uses them for propagandistic purposes. According to a leaked internal poll, a third of the population had trust in Lukashenko. The last credible public poll in Belarus was a 2016 poll showing approximately 30% approval for Lukashenko.

Lukashenko is referred to as "Batska" (бацька, "father") by his supporters.

During the 2020–21 Belarusian protests, opponents of Lukashenko began to refer to him as "Sasha 3%" on the basis that they believed that he was only supported by three percent of the Belarusian population. The term has subsequently become a popular meme within the Belarusian opposition appearing on T-shirts and posters. Lukashenko has also been referred to as "Tarakanishche" ("Cockroach") by his opponents in reference to the poem "The Monster Cockroach", in which a moustached cockroach inflicts a reign of terror on the other animals before being eaten by a sparrow.

Accusations of corruption

A film produced by Nexta, a Belarusian media service based in Poland, accuses Lukashenko of misappropriating EU funds on residences and automobiles. The film was uploaded to Telegram and YouTube, where it had over 6 million views. Lukashenko did not comment on the film directly, but on a factory visit in March 2021 claimed that opponents were creating a fake story to destabilise the country. Lukashenko states "I want you to understand: I have been working as president for a quarter of a century, and if there were already some billions, as they say, or palaces, I would have already been torn to pieces from all sides." An EU official, Ana Pisonero, said that accusations of Lukashenko misusing EU funds for buildings and residential properties were "speculation".

Personal life

Marriage and children

Lukashenko married Galina Zhelnerovich, his high school sweetheart, in 1975. Later that year, his oldest son, Viktor, was born. Their second son, Dmitry, was born in 1980. Galina lives separately in a house in the village Shklow. Though they are still legally married, Galina Lukashenko has been estranged from her husband since shortly after he became president. In a 2014 interview, Lukashenko said that they had not lived together for 30 years and the only reason they had not divorced was that he did not want to traumatise his adult sons. Lukashenko has been seen on public occasions with various women; when asked about this in the same 2014 interview he explained that he did not want to sit with an official with a "sour face", preferring "My son on one side, and a girl on the other".

Lukashenko fathered a son, Nikolai, who was born in 2004. Though never confirmed by the government, it is widely believed that Nikolai's mother is Irina Abelskaya—the two had an extramarital affair when she was Lukashenko's personal doctor. There has never been any public statement about who Nikolai's mother is; Nikolai was raised solely by his father. It has been reported by Western observers and media that Nikolai, nicknamed "Kolya", is being groomed as Lukashenko's successor. According to Belarusian state media, these speculations were dismissed by Lukashenko, who also denied that he would remain in office for a further thirty years—the time Nikolai will become eligible to stand for election and succeed him. Lukashenko has a pet dog, a spitz named Umka.

Sports

Lukashenko used to play football, but stopped playing during his presidency. His two elder sons also play ice hockey, sometimes alongside their father. Lukashenko started training in cross-country running as a child, and in the 2000s still competed at the national level. He is a keen skier and ice hockey forward. In an interview he said that he plays ice hockey three times a week. He has established the Belarus President's team, an amateur team which he sometimes plays for. Numerous ice rinks intended to enable competitive ice hockey games to be played, have been built all over Belarus at Lukashenko's behest. Lukashenko was instrumental in getting the 2014 IIHF World Championship in ice hockey to be hosted by Belarus which was considered controversial due to Lukashenko's repressive regime. Belarus was supposed to host the 2021 IIHF World Championship in May 2021, but that was cancelled after international condemnation and threats by sponsors to withdraw.

Religion and beliefs

Lukashenko describes himself as an "Orthodox atheist" and has said that he believes that a president should be a conservative person and avoid using modern electronic technology such as a tablet or smartphone. He used to play the bayan, a musical instrument similar to an accordion.

Orders and honours

National orders and honours

Medal "In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow" (1997)

Medal "Bethlehem-2000" (Palestinian National Authority, 2000)

Order of José Martí (Cuba, 2000)

Order of the Revolution (Libya, 2000)

Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd Class (Russia, 2001)

Grand Chain of the Order of the Liberator (Venezuela, 2007)

Order of Distinguished Citizen (Caracas, Venezuela, 2010)

Order of Francisco de Miranda, First Class (Venezuela, 2010)

Order of the Republic of Serbia (2013)

Presidential Order of Excellence (Georgia, 2013)

Order of Alexander Nevsky (Russia, 30 August 2014)

Badge of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus "For Merit" (Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus, 11 February 2016)

Order of the Republic (Moldova, 4 October 2016) – as a sign of deep gratitude for the special merits in the development and strengthening of friendship, mutual understanding and cooperation in various areas between the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Moldova and for the great personal contribution to providing significant support to our country in a difficult economic situation.

Heydar Aliyev Order (Azerbaijan, 28 November 2016) – for special merits in the development of friendly relations and cooperation between the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Ecclesial orders

Order of St. Dmitry Donskoy, 1st Degree (by the Russian Orthodox Church) (2005)

Order of St. Cyril (by the Belarusian Orthodox Church) (2006)

Order of St. Vladimir, 1st Degree (by the Russian Orthodox Church) (2007)

Order of St. Sava, 1st Degree (by the Serbian Orthodox Church) (2014)

Order of St. Seraphim of Sarov, 1st Degree (2015) – for merits in protecting the spiritual values of the Belarusian people, maintaining church life and establishing peaceful relations between people of different faiths.

Municipal honours

Honorary citizen of Yerevan, Armenia (2001)

Keys to the City of Caracas, Venezuela (2010)

Educational honours

Honorary Diploma of the Eurasian Economic Community (2006)

Honorary Doctor of Science, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. He was deprived of his status on 7 June 2021 due to the forced landing of a Ryanair aircraft in Belarus. He became the first honorary doctor of science in the history of the university who was deprived of this title.

Other distinctions

Winner of the international premium of Andrey Pervozvanny "For Faith and Loyalty" (1995)

Special prize of the International Olympic Committee "Gates of Olympus" (2000)

Medal of the International Federation of Festival Organizations "For development of the world festival movement" (2005)

Ig Nobel Prize (Peace in 2013, Medical Education in 2020)