Lukashenko, Aleksandr Grigorevich (1954– )

Belarussian politician, president from 1994. A former collective farm chief, he became chair of the Belarus parliament's anti-corruption commission in 1993 and was unexpectedly elected president in July 1994. He campaigned on a populist and anti-corruption platform, which included the pledge of a ‘job and home’ for all citizens, price controls, and a Slav union with Russia. He stabilized what had been a declining economy through slowing down privatization and taking greater state control. However his rule became increasingly autocratic; Lukashenko used plebiscites in 1995–96 to increase his power in relation to that of parliament, to extend his term to 2001, and to integrate more closely with Russia. He was re-elected in 2001 and 2006 by landslide margins, but the OSCE criticized these elections as falling short of international democratic standards.

In April 1995 he sent in troops to storm the parliament, where nationalist-minded opposition deputies were on hunger strike against his pro-Russian policies. A year later, following a plebiscite, the legislature was disbanded and media freedoms were curtailed. Under Lukashenko, economic conditions in Belarus deteriorated, with very little foreign investment or privatization.

Born at Kopys, he studied at the Belarussian Agricultural Academy and, after serving in the Soviet Army, became a deputy chairman of a collective farm in 1982. He was elected to the Belarus parliament in 1990 and was one of the few deputies who voted against the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.