The elections of the President of the republic held in Belarus on January 26 were the calmest in the entire history of their holding.

Aleksandr Lukashenko has awarded himself a seventh term as president of Belarus, with the West calling the so-called vote a sham and introducing additional sanctions. Belarusian political observer Artsiom Shraibman told the Kyiv Independent that Lukashenko faces uncertain future after the vote.

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

After breaking away from a crumbling Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Belarus became increasingly aligned with Russia, unlike its neighbors. That bond strengthened as Russia waged its war against Ukraine.

Belarus’ opposition activists and Western officials have denounced an orchestrated election that extended the over three-decade rule of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko

Belarusian leader and Russian ally Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule on Monday after electoral officials declared him the winner of a presidential election that Western governments rejected as a sham.

Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maksim Ryzhenkov said in an interview with the Russian Izvestia newspaper.

Belarus “unilaterally” freed an American woman, Anastassia Nuhfer, from detention, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Sunday.

The treaties with Iran and Belarus are different from the one Russia reached with North Korea, and there has been no attempt to link any of them.

Europe’s longest-serving leader won re-election in a contest widely believe to have been rigged. The result cements the power of a leader whose country is considered Russia’s staunchest ally.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko is all but certain to extend his more than three decades in power in Sunday’s election that is rejected by the opposition as a farce after years o