CNN
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Here’s a have a look at the lifetime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Birth date: August 30, 1954 (some resources say August 31)
Birth position: Kopys, Belarus
Full identify: Alexander Grigorievich Lukashenko
Father: identify unavailable publicly
Mother: Yekaterina Lukashenko, milkmaid
Marriage: Galina (Zhelnerovich) Lukashenko (1975-present)
Children: with Galina (Zhelnerovich) Lukashenko: Viktor and Dmitry; with Irina Abelskaya: Nikolai “Kolya”
Education: Mogilev Pedagogical Institute (now Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University), historical past, 1975; Belarusian Agricultural Academy, economics, 1985
Military carrier: Soviet Army
Religion: has referred to as himself an “Orthodox atheist”
Has dominated Belarus, a small nation between Russia and European Union member Poland and an crucial east-west industry direction, for greater than 1 / 4 of a century.
Was elected president in Belarus’ first democratic election in 1994, however next elections were marred by way of allegations of strong-arm techniques and balloting irregularities and had been gained by way of suspiciously huge margins.
Has been described as “Europe’s ultimate dictator.”
Lukashenko has maintained his nation’s shut political ties to Russia, limited opposition actions and censored media.
1975-1977 – Drafted into the army and serves as an trainer within the border guard alongside the western border of Belarus.
1980-1982 – Serves within the Soviet Army.
1987-1994 – Head of the Gorodets state farm within the Mogilev area.
1990-1994 – Member of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) Supreme Council, the place he turns into a deputy and later founds a faction referred to as Communists for Democracy.
1991 – Only member of the Belarusian parliament to vote towards the settlement that ends up in the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
July 10, 1994 – Is elected president of Belarus with 80% of the vote, defeating Prime Minister Vyacheslav Kebich within the nation’s first presidential election.
May 1995 – Is in the back of a referendum that will increase integration with Russia, together with making the Russian language equivalent to Belarusian and changing the nationwide flag and state symbols with ones very similar to the ones of the previous Soviet Union. The referendum additionally provides Lukashenko the correct to dissolve the parliament.
November 1996 – Is in the back of a referendum that revises the Constitution to provide extra authority to the presidency, together with restricting the authority of the Constitutional Court and increasing Lukashenko’s presidential time period. An impeachment effort fails, and Lukashenko indicators a brand new charter.
1997-2021 – Head of the Belarusian Olympic Committee.
1999 – Signs a treaty making Belarus a “union state” with Russia.
September 9, 2001 – Is reelected president with 75% of the vote.
October 2004 – A referendum is handed to get rid of presidential time period limits.
April 20, 2005 – US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice refers to Belarus as “the last remaining true dictatorship in the heart of Europe,” in an interview with CNN.
March 2006 – Is reelected president with over 80% of the vote.
December 2010 – Is reelected president with nearly 80% of the vote.
October 2015 – Is reelected president with 83.5% of the vote.
March 28, 2020 – Speaks about coronavirus after taking part in ice hockey in entrance of a packed stadium in Minsk, Belarus. Specifying no scientific evidence, he says the “fridge” like area is a “real anti-viral cure.”
March 29, 2020 – Recommends that people not only drink vodka but wash their hands with it and take saunas to combat the coronavirus.
July 28, 2020 – Lukashenko says he contracted coronavirus but recovered without suffering any symptoms, in line with a document from state-run information company Belta. He has many times brushed aside the risk posed by way of Covid-19, touted house therapies and refused to close down his nation, making Belarus an outlier in Europe.
August 9, 2020 – Lukashenko is reelected with 80% of the vote. His main opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, receives about 10%. She used to be status in for her husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky, after he used to be jailed in May within the run-up to the election. Riots ensue.
August 10, 2020 – Demonstrations resume. Around 3,000 persons are detained and dozens injured all over clashes with police, the inner ministry says in a remark observed by way of state-run information company Belta. Tikhanovskaya rejects the initial election effects and recordsdata a grievance with Belarus’ central elections committee hard a recount of the votes. She leaves for Lithuania soon afterwards.
August 16, 2020 – Lukashenko gives a speech to an estimated crowd of less than 10,000 supporters, according to CNN’s team in Minsk, Belarus. He claims Belarus is being threatened by way of international interference. At the similar time, protesters call for a brand new presidential election, in an estimated crowd of fifty,000 in line with CNN’s crew.
August 17, 2020 – Visits a factory in Minsk, Belarus, according to videos posted online by local news outlets and addresses the election. “You discuss cheating elections and wish to dangle new elections,” he tells protesting staff. “We held the elections and till you kill me, there gained’t be any new elections.” The crowd chants, “Yes, sure with out you.”
September 19, 2020 – 430 persons are detained in election protests throughout Belarus, in line with the Belarus Interior Ministry. Of the ones, 415 are within the capital Minsk. Some 385 persons are launched by way of September 20.
September 23, 2020 – Lukashenko is inaugurated for a sixth consecutive term as president in an unannounced ceremony in Minsk, Belarus, in line with state media experiences. Opposition politicians describe the rite as a “thieves’ assembly” and a “farce.” The United States and quite a few European Union international locations factor statements rejecting the legitimacy of Lukashenko’s win.
September 24, 2020 – The European Union releases a statement regarding the Belarus presidential election. “The European Union does no longer recognise their falsified effects. On this foundation, the so-called ‘inauguration’ of 23 September 2020 and the brand new mandate claimed by way of Aleksandr Lukashenko lack any democratic legitimacy.”
December 7, 2020 – Following an investigation “Concerning athletes, officers and sports activities in Belarus,” the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspends the Executive Board of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus “from all IOC occasions and actions, together with the Olympic Games.” Lukashenko’s election of his son Viktor Lukashenko to be change him as president of the Belarusian NOC isn’t identified, in line with a March 8, 2021, IOC remark.
May 23, 2021 – A Ryanair flight traveling from Athens to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius is intercepted and forced to land in Minsk, Belarus, as it is about to begin its descent. When it lands, distinguished opposition activist Roman Protasevich and his Russian spouse Sofia Sapega, who’re at the flight, are detained. Protasevich is considered one of dozens of reporters and activists campaigning in exile towards Lukashenko’s 26-year rule. Lukashenko later claims that the flight used to be diverted as a result of a bomb risk that had originated in Switzerland, allegations that Swiss government refute. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda later tells CNN that the e-mail indicating a bomb risk used to be despatched half-hour after Lithuanian officers won the sign from Minsk to land the airplane.
May 24, 2021 – The European Union calls on airlines to avoid Belarus’ airspace, responding to the forced landing of the Ryanair flight. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the bloc is “last our airspace to planes from Belarus” and calls on EU airways to not fly over the rustic. She provides that “additional financial sanctions will likely be offered quickly.”
May 24, 2021 – The US National Security Council releases a readout of a call between national security adviser Jake Sullivan and democratic opposition leader Tikhanovskaya. Sullivan “strongly condemned the brazen and perilous grounding of a Ryanair flight between two EU member states on May 23 and the next removing and detention of journalist Raman Pratasevich.” He calls for Protasevich’s quick liberate, honest elections and states “that the United States, in coordination with the EU and different allies and companions, will dangle the Lukashenka regime to account.”
May 27, 2021 – The International Civil Aviation Organization says it’ll perform an investigation into the diversion of the flight, whilst a minimum of two European carriers say they were refused permission to fly to Moscow by Russian authorities once they asked to fly an alternate direction bypassing Belarusian airspace.
May 28, 2021 – Russian President Vladimir Putin cements his support of Lukashenko in a meeting, announcing the West’s response to the interception and compelled touchdown of a passenger jet “used to be an outburst of emotion.” The identical day, US aviation government warn airways “to workout excessive warning” when flying over Belarus.
August 9, 2021 – While answering questions from native and international media, Lukashenko denies that state repression exists in Belarus. In reaction to a query on repression and the imprisonment of political opponents, Lukashenko accuses america of “lawlessness,” mentioning the January 6 rise up and invoking false claims about america presidential election end result.
March 15, 2022 – The US sanctions Lukashenka and his wife for gross human right abuses, and playing a key role in helping Russia’s assault on Ukraine. The US in the past implemented sanctions to individuals of Lukashenko’s circle of relatives in December after a migrant disaster on Belarus’s border with Poland, which additionally resulted in accusations of human rights abuses.
