Alexander Lukashenko facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alexander Lukashenko
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| Александр Лукашенко Аляксандр Лукашэнка |
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Lukashenko in 2023
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| President of Belarus | |
| Assumed office 20 July 1994 |
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| Prime Minister |
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| Preceded by | Myechyslaw Hryb (as head of state and Chairman of the Supreme Council) |
| Chairman of the All-Belarusian People's Assembly | |
| Assumed office 24 April 2024 |
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| Deputy | Aliaksandr Kosiniec |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Chairman of the Supreme State Council of the Union State |
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| Assumed office 26 January 2000 |
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| Chairman of the Council of Ministers | |
| General Secretary |
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| Preceded by | Office established |
| Member of the Supreme Council of Belarus | |
| In office 25 August 1991 – 20 July 1994 |
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| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko
30 August 1954 Kopys, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union (now Belarus) |
| Political party | Independent (1992–present) |
| Other political affiliations |
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| Spouse |
Galina Zhelnerovich
(m. 1975) |
| Children |
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| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Economist and collective farmer |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Soviet Union Belarus |
| Branch/service |
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| Years of service |
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| Rank | Lieutenant colonel |
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been President of Belarus since the office's establishment on 20 July 1994, making him the longest-serving European president.
Contents
Early life, family and education
Lukashenko was born on 30 August 1954 in the settlement of Kopys in the Vitebsk Oblast of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Starting with an interview given in 2009 Lukashenko has said that his actual birthday is 31 August, the same as his son's Nikolai's. This caused some confusion as all official sources had said 30 August 1954 up until then. An explanation was later given that his mother had entered the hospital on the 30 August in labor but not given birth until after midnight.
Lukashenko grew up without a father in his childhood. His mother, Ekaterina Trofimovna Lukashenko (1924–2015), worked unskilled jobs on a railway, at a construction site, at a flax factory in Orsha and finally as a milkmaid in Alexandria, a small village in the east of Belarus, close to the Russian border.
Lukashenko went to Alexandria secondary school. He graduated from the Mogilev Pedagogical Institute (now Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University) in 1975, after 4 years studying there and the Belarusian Agricultural Academy in Horki in 1985.
Military and early politics career
In 1979, Lukashenko joined the ranks of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of Byelorussia. After leaving the military, he became the deputy chairman of a collective farm in 1982 and in 1985, he was promoted to the post of director of the Gorodets state farm and construction materials plant in the Shklow district. In 1987, he was appointed as the director of the Gorodets state farm in Shklow district and in early 1988, was one of the first in Mogilev Region to introduce a leasing contract to a state farm.
In 1990, Lukashenko was elected Deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR. Having acquired a reputation as an eloquent opponent of corruption, Lukashenko was elected in April 1993 to serve as the interim chairman of the anti-corruption committee of the Belarusian parliament. In late 1993 he accused 70 senior government officials, including the Supreme Soviet chairman Stanislav Shushkevich and prime minister Vyacheslav Kebich, of corruption including stealing state funds for personal purposes. While the charges ultimately proved to be without merit, Shushkevich resigned his chairmanship due to the embarrassment of this series of events and losing a vote of no-confidence. He served in that position until July 1994.
Presidency
Domestic policy
The political system of Lukashenko has become colloquially known as "Lukashism" or "Lukashenkoism".
Lukashenko promotes himself as a "man of the people." Lukashenko wanted to rebuild Belarus when he took office; the economy was in freefall due to declining industry and lack of demand for Belarusian goods. Lukashenko kept many industries under the control of the government. In 2001, he stated his intention to improve the social welfare of his citizens and to make Belarus "powerful and prosperous."
With the ascent to power of Lukashenko in 1994, the Russification policy of Russian Imperial and Soviet era was renewed.
Since the November 1996 referendum, Lukashenko has effectively held all governing power in the nation. Under the Constitution, if the House of Representatives rejects his choice for prime minister twice, he has the right to dissolve it. His decrees have greater weight than ordinary legislation. He also has near-absolute control over government spending; parliament can only increase or decrease spending with his permission. However, the legislature is dominated by his supporters in any event, and there is no substantive opposition to presidential decisions. Indeed, every seat in the lower house has been held by pro-Lukashenko MPs for all but one term since 2004. He also appoints eight members of the upper house, the Council of the Republic, as well as nearly all judges.
Economy
Lukashenko's early economic policies aimed to prevent issues that occurred in other post-Soviet states, such as the establishment of oligarchic structures and mass unemployment. The unemployment rate for the country at the end of 2011 was at 0.6% of the population (of 6.86 million eligible workers), a decrease from 1995, when unemployment was 2.9% with a working-eligible population of 5.24 million. The per-capita gross national income rose from US$1,423 in 1993 to US$5,830 at the end of 2011.
One major economic issue Lukashenko faced throughout his presidency was the value of the Belarusian ruble. For a time it was pegged to major foreign currencies, such as the euro, US dollar and the Russian ruble in order to maintain the stability of the Belarusian ruble. Yet, the currency has experienced several periods of devaluation. A major devaluation took place in 2011 after the government announced that average salaries would increase to US$500. The 2011 devaluation was the largest on record for the past twenty years according to the World Bank.
Belarus also had to seek a bailout from international sources and, although it has received loans from China, loans from the IMF and other agencies depend on how Belarus reforms its economy.
Some critics of Lukashenko, including the opposition group Zubr, use the term Lukashism to refer to the political and economic system Lukashenko has implemented in Belarus. The term is also used more broadly to refer to an authoritarian ideology based on a cult of his personality and nostalgia for Soviet times among certain groups in Belarus. The US Congress sought to aid the opposition groups by passing the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004 to introduce sanctions against Lukashenko's government and provide financial and other support to the opposition.
Lukashenko supporters argue that his rule spared Belarus the turmoil that beset many other former Soviet countries. Lukashenko commented on the criticism of him by saying: "I've been hearing these accusations for over 10 years and we have got used to it. We are not going to answer them. I want to come from the premise that the elections in Belarus are held for ourselves. I am sure that it is the Belarusian people who are the masters in our state."
COVID-19 pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lukashenko stated that he is strongly opposed to making vaccination mandatory. "There will be no mandatory vaccination in Belarus. I am strongly against it. Vaccination will remain voluntary. If a person wants to be vaccinated it is good, if not, let it be".
Personal life
Marriage and children
Lukashenko married Galina Zhelnerovich, his high school sweetheart, in 1975. Later that year, his oldest son, Viktor, was born. Their second son, Dmitry, was born in 1980. Galina lives separately in a house in the village Shklow. Though they are still legally married, Galina Lukashenko has been estranged from her husband since shortly after he became president. In a 2014 interview, Lukashenko said that they had not lived together for 30 years and the only reason they had not divorced was that he did not want to traumatize his adult sons. Lukashenko has been seen on public occasions with various women; when asked about this in the same 2014 interview he explained that he did not want to sit with an official with a "sour face", preferring "My son on one side, and a girl on the other".
Lukashenko fathered a son, Nikolai, who was born in 2004. ..... There has never been any public statement about who Nikolai's mother is; Nikolai was raised solely by his father. It has been reported by Western observers and media that Nikolai, nicknamed "Kolya", is being groomed as Lukashenko's successor. According to Belarusian state media, these speculations were dismissed by Lukashenko, who also denied that he would remain in office for a further thirty years—the time Nikolai will become eligible to stand for election and succeed him. Lukashenko has a pet dog, a spitz named Umka.
Sports
Lukashenko used to play football, but stopped playing during his presidency. His two elder sons also play ice hockey, sometimes alongside their father. Lukashenko started training in cross-country running as a child, and in the 2000s still competed at the national level. He is a keen skier and ice hockey forward. In an interview he said that he plays ice hockey three times a week. He has established the Belarus President's team, an amateur team which he sometimes plays for. Numerous ice rinks intended to enable competitive ice hockey games to be played, have been built all over Belarus at Lukashenko's behest. Lukashenko was instrumental in getting the 2014 IIHF World Championship in ice hockey to be hosted by Belarus which was considered controversial due to Lukashenko's repressive regime. Belarus was supposed to host the 2021 IIHF World Championship in May 2021, but that was cancelled after international condemnation and threats by sponsors to withdraw.
Religion and beliefs
Lukashenko describes himself as an "Orthodox atheist" and has said that he believes that the president should be a conservative person and avoid using modern electronic technology such as a tablet or smartphone. He used to play the bayan, a musical instrument similar to an accordion.
Orders and honors
- Medal "In memory of the 850th anniversary of Moscow" (1997)
- Winner of the international premium of Andrey Pervozvanny "For Faith and Loyalty" (1995)
- Medal "Bethlehem-2000" (Palestinian National Authority, 2000)
- The Order of José Martí (Cuba, 2000)
- Order of the Revolution (Libya, 2000)
- Special prize of the International Olympic Committee "Gates of Olympus" (2000)
- Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd Class (Russia, 2001)
- Honorary citizen of Yerevan, Armenia (2001)
- Order of St. Dmitry Donskoy, First Degree (by the Russian Orthodox Church) (2005)
- Medal of the International Federation of Festival Organizations "For development of the world festival movement" (2005)
- Order of St. Cyril (by the Belarusian Orthodox Church) (2006)
- Honorary Diploma of the Eurasian Economic Community (2006)
- Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir, 1st Degree (2007)
- Grand Chain of the Order of the Liberator(Venezuela, 2007)
- Order of St. Vladimir, First Degree (by the Russian Orthodox Church) (2007)
- Keys to the City of Caracas, Venezuela (2010)
- Order of Distinguished Citizen (Caracas, Venezuela, 2010)
- Order of Francisco Miranda, First Class (Venezuela, 2010)
- Order of the Republic of Serbia (2013)
- Presidential Order of Excellence (Georgia, 2013)
- Order of St. Sava, 1st Degree (2014)
- Order of Alexander Nevsky (Russia, August 30 2014)
- Order of St. Seraphim of Sarov, 1st Degree (2015) – for merits in protecting the spiritual values of the Belarusian people, maintaining church life and establishing peaceful relations between people of different faiths.
- Badge of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus "For Merit" (Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus, February 11, 2016)
- Order of the Republic (Moldova, October 4, 2016) – as a sign of deep gratitude for the special merits in the development and strengthening of friendship, mutual understanding and cooperation in various areas between the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Moldova and for the great personal contribution to providing significant support to our country in a difficult economic situation.
- Order of Heydar Aliyev (Azerbaijan, November 28, 2016) – for special merits in the development of friendly relations and cooperation between the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Azerbaijan.
- Order of Nazarbayev (Kazakhstan, 2019)
- Ig Nobel Prize (Peace in 2013, Medical Education in 2020)
- Honorary Doctor of Science, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. He was deprived of his status on June 7, 2021 due to the forced landing of a Ryanair aircraft in Belarus. He became the first honorary doctor of science in the history of the university, who was deprived of this title.
Images for kids
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President Lukashenko on a postage stamp from 1996
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Official ceremony of signing Treaty on Establishing Russian-Belarusian Union at the Kremlin Palace, between the Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Belarusian President Lukashenko, 1997
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Alexander Lukashenko standing with Vladimir Putin and Leonid Kuchma at the Slavic Bazaar in Vitebsk in 2001
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Alexander Lukashenko alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a state-visit to Syria in December 2003
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Meeting of Alexander Lukashenko with Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2006
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Lukashenko with Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin, December 2008
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Dmitry Medvedev and Alexander Lukashenko observed the final phase of the Zapad-2009 strategic exercises that took place in Baranavichy, Belarus.
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Lukashenko and Putin at the Russian-Belarusian strategic military exercises in 2013
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Lukashenko giving a speech in 2014
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Lukashenko during a bilateral meeting with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in 2016
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Lukashenko and Putin in February 2021
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Lukashenko during a bilateral meeting with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev in Baku, Azerbaijan, April 2021
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Lukashenko, Putin, Erdoğan, Xi Jinping, Modi and other leaders at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Samarkand, September 2022
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A demonstration in Warsaw in 2004, raising awareness about the disappearances of opposition activists in Belarus
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With Russian president Vladimir Putin during a news conference in 2002
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Lukashenko with Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin in 2020
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Meeting of the Russian-led military alliance, Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), in Moscow on 16 May 2022
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With U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo in 2020
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With Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2023
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See also
In Spanish: Aleksandr Lukashenko para niños
