Before Lukashenko was the president of Belarus, he was the secretary of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]. He said that he was the only member of parliament who voted against the indepence of Belarus from the Soviet Union. He is still a sympathizer of the USSR. Belarus is the only country whose intelligence service uses the name [[KGB]]. In 1994 he was democratically elected as the president of Belarus. In his tenure he started to control courts, banks and universities, installed a dictatorship and started to improve the relationships with [[Russia]], [[Kazakhstan]] and [[Venezuela]]. The following elections were rigged and opposition groups forbidden and persecuted.<ref>https://www.nationalreview.com/node/257729/print</ref> Only the Russian pro-lukashenko observers called the election fair, during the [[OSCE]] criticized them.<ref>http://cnsnews.com/node/17466</ref> Protesters against the government were arrested.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/story/2006/03/23/belarus-police-break-up-protest-arrest-nearly-200/</ref> | Before Lukashenko was the president of Belarus, he was the secretary of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]. He said that he was the only member of parliament who voted against the indepence of Belarus from the Soviet Union. He is still a sympathizer of the USSR. Belarus is the only country whose intelligence service uses the name [[KGB]]. In 1994 he was democratically elected as the president of Belarus. In his tenure he started to control courts, banks and universities, installed a dictatorship and started to improve the relationships with [[Russia]], [[Kazakhstan]] and [[Venezuela]]. The following elections were rigged and opposition groups forbidden and persecuted.<ref>https://www.nationalreview.com/node/257729/print</ref> Only the Russian pro-lukashenko observers called the election fair, during the [[OSCE]] criticized them.<ref>http://cnsnews.com/node/17466</ref> Protesters against the government were arrested.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/story/2006/03/23/belarus-police-break-up-protest-arrest-nearly-200/</ref> |