Alexander Lukashenko Totally Explained

Everything about Alexander Lukashenko totally explained

Alexander Lukashenko (Aljaksandar Ryhoravič Lukašenka/Alyaksandar Ryhoravich Lukashenka;, Aleksandr Grigoryevich Lukashenko, ) (born August 30, 1954) has served as the President of Belarus since July 20, 1994. Before his career as a politician, Lukashenko served as a military officer and worked as a director for manufacturing plants and farms.
During his first two terms as President, Lukashenko restructured the Belarusian economy by introducing economic integration with the Russian Federation and building relationships with leaders of the former Soviet Union.

Early career (to 1994)

Lukashenko was born on 30 August, 1954 in the settlement of Kopys in the Vitebsk voblast of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Lukashenko grew up without a father in his childhood. He graduated from the Mogilev Pedagogical Institute in 1975 and the Belarussian Agricultural Academy in 1985. He served in the Border Guard (frontier troops) from 1975 to 1977 and in the Soviet Army from 1980 to 1982. Lukashenko led a Komsomol chapter in Mogilev from 1977 to 1978. While in the Soviet Army, Lukashenko was an officer of the 120th Motorized Rifle "Guard" Division, which was based in Minsk. After leaving the military he became the deputy chairman of a collective farm in 1982 and in 1985. He was promoted to the post of director of the Gorodets state farm and construction materials plant in the Shklov district.
   In 1990 Lukashenko was elected as a Deputy in the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Belarus. He founded the 'Communists for Democracy' faction, which advocated a democratic Soviet Union run on communist principles. He claims to have been the only deputy of the Belarusian parliament who voted against ratification of the December 1991 agreement that dissolved the Soviet Union and set up the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place.
   Having acquired a reputation as an eloquent opponent of corruption,
   A new Belarusian constitution enacted in early 1994 paved the way for the first democratic presidential elections in July. Six candidates stood, including Lukashenko, who campaigned as an independent on a populist platform of "defeat[ing] the mafia." Shushkevich and Vyacheslav Kebich also ran, with the latter regarded as the clear favorite. Lukashenko won 45% of the vote while Kebich received 15% and Shushkevich received 10%. Lukashenko won the second round of the election on July 10 with over 80% of the vote.

President of Belarus

Second term (2001-2006)

Lukashenko's original five-year term of office ran out in July 1999 but had been extended to 2001 by the 1996 referendum. Elections were held on September 9, 2001 with Vladimir Goncharik as his opponent. During the campaign, Lukashenko promised to raise the standards of farming, social benefits and increase industrial output of Belarus. Lukashenko won in the first round with 75.65% of the vote. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, despite finding no error in the voting process, described the process as "failing to meet international standards."

2006 presidential election

After Lukashenko confirmed he was running for re-election in 2005, opposition groups began to seek a single candidate. On October 16, 2005, on the Day of Solidarity With Belarus, the political groups Zubr and Third Way Belarus were encouraging all of the opposition parties to rally behind one candidate to oppose Lukashenko in the 2006 election. Their chosen candidate was Alaksandar Milinkievič, who was running against Lukashenko and other candidates. On March 19, 2006 exit polls showed Lukashenko winning a third term in a landslide, amid opposition claims of vote-rigging and fear of violence. The EcooM organization gave Lukashenko 84.2% of the vote and Milinkevich just 2 percent, while the Belarusian Committee of Youth Organizations, gave Lukashenko 84.2% and Milinkevich 3.1 percent. The Gallup Organization has noted that EcooM and the Belarusian Committee of Youth Organizations are government-controlled and both released their exit poll results before noon on election day, although voting stations closed at 8 P.M.
Belarus authorities vowed to crush unrest in the event of large-scale protests following the election (such as those that marked the Orange Revolution in Ukraine). Despite that, the crowd of demonstrators rallying after the election was the biggest the opposition had mustered in years, with nightly protests and demonstrations in Minsk. The turnout at the biggest protest on election night was about 10,000 according to AP reporters' estimates. Election observers from the Russia-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the UN ad hoc organization Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) differed on the Belarus vote. The OSCE declared on March 20, 2006 that the "presidential election failed to meet OSCE commitments for democratic elections." Lukashenko "permitted State authority to be used in a manner which didn't 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." In contrast, the CIS observers declared the Belarus presidential election open and transparent. 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 [theelections] would be illegitimate and it was pretty biased in its commentaries on their progress and results, thus playing an instigating role."
Lukashenko himself stated that the "last Presidential elections were rigged; I already told this to the Westerners. [...] 93.5% voted for the President Lukashenko. They said it isn't a European number. We made it 86. This really happened. And if [oneis to] start recounting the votes, I don't know what to do with them. Before the elections they told us that if we showed the European numbers, our elections would be accepted. We were planning to make the European numbers. But, as you can see, this didn't help either." Some Russian nationalists, such as Dmitry Rogozin and the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, have stated that they'd like to see Lukashenko become President of Russia in 2008. Lukashenko spoke and said he won't run for the Russian presidency; if his health is still good, he might run for reelection in 2011.

Domestic policy

In May 1995, one of the first votes under Lukashenko occurred. Not only were the national symbols of the country changed, it also gave the Lukashenko the ability to disband the Supreme Soviet by decree. In the summer of 1996, 70 deputies of the 199-member Belarusian parliament signed a petition to impeach Lukashenko on charges of violating the Constitution. Shortly after that a referendum was held on November 24, 1996 in which 4 questions were offered by Lukashenko and 3 questions offered by a group of Parliament members. The vote passed, but faced international and internal condemnation. On November 25, it was announced that 70.5% of voters, on an 84% turnout, had approved an amended constitution that greatly increased Lukashenko's power. The United States and the European Union, however, refused to accept the legitimacy of the referendum. By most accounts, the new constitution turned his presidency into a legal dictatorship.
   After the referendum, Lukashenko convened a new parliamentary assembly from those members of the parliament who were loyal to him. After 12 deputies withdrew their signature from the impeachment petition, only about 40 deputies of the old parliament were left behind by Lukashenko, but they'd no place to convene, since the administration closed the parliament building "for remodeling". Nevertheless, for some time, the EU and Council of Europe considered these remnants of the old parliament as the legitimate assembly. At the start of 1998, the Central Bank of Russia suspended trading in the Belarusian ruble, which led to a collapse in the value of the currency. Lukashenko responded by taking control of the Central Bank of Belarus, the sacking of the entire bank leadership and blaming the West for the free fall of the currency.
   Lukashenko blamed foreign governments for conspiring against him and, in April 1998, he expelled ambassadors from the Drazdy complex near Minsk, offering them another building. The Drazdy conflict caused an international outcry and resulted in a travel ban on Lukashenko from the European Union and the United States. Although the ambassadors eventually returned after the controversy died down, Lukashenko stepped up his rhetorical attacks against the West. He claimed that Western governments were trying to undermine Belarus at all levels, even sporting, during the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
   Upon the outbreak of the Kosovo War in 1999, Lukashenko suggested to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that Yugoslavia join the Union of Russia and Belarus. Following the Iraq war of 2003, the United States intelligence agencies issued a report that announced aides of Saddam Hussein managed to acquire Belarusian passports while in Syria. The same report mentioned it was unlikely that Belarus would offer safe harbor for Saddam and his two sons. These policies led Western governments to take a tougher position against Lukashenko. The United States was particularly angered by Belarus's arms trade with Iran and Iraq, and American political leaders increasingly began to refer to Belarus as "Europe's last dictatorship". The European Union was concerned for the security of its gas supplies from Russia, which are piped through Belarus, and took an active interest in the country's affairs. As of 2004, the EU and Belarus share a border over 1000 kilometers in length with the accession of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.
   Lukashenko promotes himself as a "man of the people". Due to his style of rule, he's often informally referred to as bat'ka ("father"). During a televised address to the nation on September 7, 2004 Lukashenko announced plans for a referendum on whether to eliminate presidential term limits. This was held on October 17, 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, European Union, and United States State Department have stated that the vote "fell significantly short of international standards". An example of the failure, cited by the OSCE, was the pre-marking of ballots. The economy was in a free fall, due to declining industry and lack of demand for Belarusian goods. Lukashenko kept many industries under the control of the government and privatization was slowed down. Since 2001, Lukashenko wanted to improve the social welfare of his citizens and to make Belarus "powerful and prosperous." In response to a question about Belarus's domestic policies, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela said "We see here a model social state like the one we're beginning to create."
   Some critics of Lukashenko use the term Lukashism (lukashenkoism) to refer to the political and economic system Lukashenko has implemented in Belarus. The term is also used more broadly to refer to an authoritarian political ideology based on cult of his personality and nostalgia for Soviet times among certain groups in Belarus. It isn't known where the term was first used, though the earliest documented use was in 1998. The use was in the context of opening of a museum to memorialize victims of Communism with a wing dedicated to Lukashism. The term has been used mostly by groups who oppose Lukashenko, such as Zubr.
   Lukashenko continues to face domestic opposition from a coalition of opposition groups supported by the United States and Europe. The United States Congress has sought to aid the opposition groups by passing the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004 to introduce sanctions against Lukashenko's government and provide financial and other support to the opposition.
   Those who support Lukashenko claim that his rule has spared Belarus the turmoil that has beset many other ex-Soviet countries.
   Lukashenko himself commented the criticism on him by saying: "I've been hearing these accusations for over 10 years and we got used to it." Before the polling he said: "We are not going to answer them. I want to come from the premise that the elections in Belarus are held for ourselves. I'm sure that it's the Belarus people who are the masters in our state." He warned that anyone joining an opposition protest would be treated as a "terrorist", adding: "We will wring their necks, as one might a duck".
   Lukashenko has been noted for making controversial statements. One remark made in 1995 praises Adolf Hitler: "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."
   In October 2007 Lukashenko was accused of making blatant anti-Semitic and anti-Israel 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 United States House of Representatives sent a letter to Belarusian ambassador to the United States, Mikhail Khvostov, addressing Lukashenko's comments with a strong request to retract them. The comments also caused a reaction from Israel. Consequently Pavel Yakoubovitch, editor of Belarus Today, was sent to Israel, and in a meeting with the Israel Foreign Ministry said that Lukashenko’s comments were "a mistake that was said jokingly, and doesn't represent his positions regarding the Jewish people" and that he was "anything but anti-Semitic," and "insulted by the mere accusation." Belarus Ambassador to Israel Igor Leshchenya stated that the president had a "kind attitude toward the Jewish people." Sergei Rychenko, the press secretary at the Belarus Embassy in Tel Aviv, said parts of Lukashenko's comments were mistranslated.

Orders and honors

The José Martí Order (Cuba, 2000)
Order of the Revolution (Libya, 2000)
Order of St. Vladimer first degree (2007)
Order of St. Donskoy first degree (2005)
Order of St. Kyril (by the Belarusian Orthodox Church)(2006)
Honorary citizen of Yerevan, Armenia (2001)
Honor Diploma of the Eurasian Economic Community (2006)
Special prize of the International Olympic Committee «Gates of the Olymph» (2000)
Medal of the international federation of festival organizations «For development of world festival movement» (2005)
Winner of the international premium of Andrey Perevozvanovo «for Faith and Loyalty» (1995)

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