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Lukashenko

Aleksandr Lukashenko
Alexander Lukashenko crop.jpeg
Lukashenko in July 2015
President of Belarus
Assumed office
20 July 1994
Prime Minister
Preceded by Myechyslaw Hryb (Chairman of the Supreme Soviet)
Chairman of the Supreme State Council of the Union State
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
Spouse(s) Galina Zhelnerovich (1975–present)
Children 3
Religion Eastern Orthodox
Website president.gov.by/en/
Military service
Allegiance
Service/branch
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 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.


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