logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2021
23m 51s

Belarus: Can President Lukashenko be ove...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Over his 26 years in power, Belarus’s president Alexander Lukashenko has taken more and more control.

He has detained protesters and tortured political opponents for years. He is emboldened by his last ally in Europe - Vladimir Putin. And his regime of terror is spilling over into the continent.

But, Tanya Beckett asks if Europe’s last dictator can cling on to power for much longer.

Produced by Soila Apparicio.

(image: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting with Commonwealth of Independent States officials in Minsk May 28 2021. Credit: Dmitry Astakhov/Getty Images)

Up next
Yesterday
Is Cyprus moving closer to reunification?
<p>The Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded the north after a military coup backed by Greece. Since then, the northern third has been run by a Turkish Cypriot government. This self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is ... Show More
24m 2s
Nov 18
Is the new Pope woke?
<p>Cardinal Robert Prevost made history earlier this year, when he became the first American pontiff to lead the Catholic Church. And when he stepped out onto the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica as Pope Leo XIV, dressed in traditional papal robes, some conservatives in the church ... Show More
23m 56s
Nov 11
Is the world ready for more climate migration?
From floods in Pakistan to droughts in the Horn of Africa, extreme weather events are already forcing millions of people to move. Most are displaced within their own countries but rising temperatures and sea levels could soon push many across national borders.Yet international la ... Show More
23m 58s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2021
Belarus: more than a moral dilemma
<p>The decision by Belarus to divert a plane to Minsk to arrest a dissident journalist was intended to send a message to opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko, whose 27 years in office have seen him dubbed Europe’s last dictator. However, the act has renewed international c ... Show More
22m 38s
Sep 2020
Resisting 'Europe's last dictator' in Belarus
For more than 20 years, people in Belarus have been protesting against the authoritarian rule of President Alexander Lukashenko - who's been dubbed Europe's last dictator. Lukashenko came to power in a landslide election victory in 1994 but he soon changed the constitution to giv ... Show More
12m 52s
Sep 2020
A High-Stakes Standoff in Belarus
<p>Aleksandr Lukashenko came to office in Belarus in the 1990s on a nostalgic message, promising to undo moves toward a market economy and end the hardship the country had endured after gaining independence from the Soviet Union. As president, he acquired dictatorial powers, remo ... Show More
36m 48s
Sep 2020
Gitanas Nausėda: Will people power take Belarus in a new direction?
Will Moscow’s will prevail in Belarus, or will people power take the country in a new direction? Stephen Sackur speaks to Gitanas Nausėda, the president of neighbouring Lithuania. The daily street protests demanding the resignation of Belarus’s authoritarian President Alexander L ... Show More
24m 4s
Aug 2020
Fighting for democracy on the streets of Belarus
Two weeks ago, Alexander Lukashenko claimed to win a sixth term as president of the Republic of Belarus. But after his 26 year rule, many in Belarus have had enough. Since the August 9th election, the country has seen widespread protests which have been met with mass arrests and ... Show More
29m 22s
Mar 2022
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya: Is the fate of Belarus tied to the fate of Ukraine?
With the world focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it’s easy to overlook one other key element of Vladimir Putin’s Greater Russia strategy: Moscow’s ever tighter grip on Ukraine’s northern neighbour Belarus, now used as a launchpad for the Ukraine assault. Belarus’s authorit ... Show More
22m 57s
Nov 2021
How Belarus Manufactured a Border Crisis
<p>For three decades, President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus, a former Soviet nation in Eastern Europe, ruled with an iron fist. But pressure has mounted on him in the past year and a half. After a contested election in 2020, the European Union enacted sanctions and refused to ... Show More
27m 52s