Alexander Lukashenko

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he had secured a pledge from Russia to provide comprehensive assistance if needed to ensure the security of his country in a phone call with President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 15.   

Sunday's presidential election giving Lukashenko a sixth term in office was, like all but one since 1994, deemed by the EU to have been neither free nor fair. Despite a strong challenge from former teacher Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the autocratic president implausibly won 80% of the vote.

Protesters formed human chains and marched through the streets of Belarus carrying flowers on Aug. 12 in anger at a crackdown by strongman President Alexander Lukashenko that has prompted the European Union to consider new sanctions against Minsk.    

It is the second day in a row that people have demonstrated, angry at the results of Sunday's presidential vote. Security services claim to have foiled an attempt to assassinate the president's main election rival.

"Special police got out of police cars next to the Grusevka metro station. Protesters began to flee. People shouted from the balconies of the surrounding buildings where to hide, and in response, they approached the "coordinators" several times and fired at them", a correspondent said for the Russian agency.

About 500 people, mostly young people, gathered in Minsk, according to a TAS S correspondent, without permission.
Belarus held presidential elections on August 9, and according to preliminary results, President Alexander Lukashenko received 80.08 percent of support.
Following the announcement of the results, protests broke out in Minsk and several other cities.

The use of the death penalty in Belarus does not allow the country to be a member of the European Council. This was stated yesterday by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen after a meeting in Vienna with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, TASS reported.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will pay an official visit to Turkey on April 16 upon the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the presidency said on April 15.

A delegation of the Serbian Ministry of Defense, led by Minister Aleksandar Vulin, attended on Monday a takeover ceremony in Baranovichy, Belarus.

At a bilateral meeting with President Lukashenko, it was concluded that relations between Serbia and Belarus are friendly and that there are no outstanding issues, the Serbian government announced in a press release.