Alexander Lukashenko

Aleksandr Lukashenko
Lukashenko in July 2015
President of Belarus
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 July 1994
Prime Minister	Mikhail Chigir Sergey Ling Vladimir Yermoshin Gennady Novitsky Sergei Sidorsky Mikhail Myasnikovich Andrei Kobyakov
Preceded by	Myechyslaw Hryb (Chairman of the Supreme Soviet)
Chairman of the Supreme State Council of the Union State
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 January 2000
Preceded by	Position established
Deputy to the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus
In office 1990–1994
Personal details
Born	Aleksandr Grigoryevich Lukashenko (1954-08-30) 30 August 1954 (age 62) Kopys, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union (now Belarus)
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1979–1991) Communists for Democracy (1991–1992) Independent (1992–present)
Spouse(s)	Galina Zhelnerovich (1975–present)
Children	Viktor Dmitry Nikolai
Website	president.gov.by/en/
Military service
Allegiance	Soviet Union  Belarus
Service/branch	Soviet Border Troops Belarusian Armed Forces
Years of service	1975–1977 1980–1982

Aleksandr Grigoryevich Lukashenko (Belarusian: Алякса́ндр Рыго́равіч Лукашэ́нка, Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka,Russian: Алекса́ндр Григо́рьевич Лукаше́нко; born 30 August 1954) is the President of Belarus, in office since 20 July 1994. Before his career as a politician, Lukashenko worked as director of a state-owned agricultural farm and spent time with the Soviet Border Troops and the Soviet Army. He was the only deputy to vote against the independence of Belarus from the Soviet Union.

Lukashenko opposed Western-backed "shock therapy" during the post-Soviet transition. He has retained Soviet-era policies, such as continued state ownership of key industries, despite objections from Western governments. Observers also contend that Lukashenko presides over a regime steeped in Soviet nostalgia. Belarus has been labeled "Europe's last dictatorship" by some Western journalists, on account of Lukashenko's self-described authoritarian style of government. Lukashenko and other Belarusian officials are also the subject of sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States for alleged human rights violations off and on since 2006.

Lukashenko was born on 30 August 1954, in the settlement of Kopys in the Vitebsk Oblast of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. His grandfather, Trokhym Lukashenko, had been born in the Sumy Oblast of Ukraine near Shostka (today village of Sobycheve). Lukashenko grew up without a father in his childhood, leading him to be taunted by his schoolmates for having an unmarried mother.