Belarus has opened early voting for a presidential election set to cement Alexander Lukashenko’s grip on power and his dependence on Moscow, three years after the country served as a launch pad for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The 70-year-old former Soviet farm director, whose re-election in 2020 triggered large protests and the harshest crackdown in the country’s history, has barred any opposition candidates from running and outlawed any form of dissent.
“No political process, no opposition candidates, nothing close to the competition we witnessed in 2020,” said Artyom Shraibman, a scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “The main thing is that in Belarus votes simply aren’t counted.”
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