Belarus’ strong-arm leader, Alexander Lukashenko, Cruises to Reelection
Europe's longest-serving leader, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, spun off his seventh straight election victory Sunday in a contest that his exiled opponents dismissed as a sham whose sole purpose was to cement his hold autocratic over the former Soviet republic, Ally Russia's closest.“Don't use the word election to describe this farce,” said Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, an opposition leader who fled Belarus after the country's previous presidential vote in 2020 and a brutal crackdown on nationwide protests over election fraud. “It is a staged performance by Lukashenko to cling to power at any cost.”- Official results released early Monday gave Mr. Lukashenko another landslide victory with 86.82 percent of the vote. That's also more than the 81 percent he claimed in the disputed 2...