Belarus president Lukashenko is facing the strongest protests

The authoritarian ruler of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has been facing massive protests since 9 August, when a controversial presidential vote showed him winning by a landslide.

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Key-Points

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in capital Minsk, demanding that their dictator of more than a quarter century step down.

Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, Belarus became a sovereign nation, and its first presidential elections were held in 1994.

Alexander Lukashenko has served as the country’s first president since 1994. Belarus has been labelled “Europe’s last dictatorship” by some Western journalists, on account of the country’s poor human rights record and Lukashenko’s self-described authoritarian style of government.