Russian President Vladimir Putin has used the ongoing crisis in Belarus to increase his sway over self-declared Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has long stonewalled Moscow’s persistent efforts to integrate Belarus into Russia. A sustained protest movement following Lukashenko’s overt manipulation of Belarus’ August 2020 presidential election has seriously degraded Lukashenko’s ability to resist Russian pressure to integrate Belarus into Russia – a key Kremlin campaign ISW’s Russia Team has analyzed extensively in over 70 published assessments in 2020.
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George Barros: Putin will increase pressure on Lukashenko to integrate Belarus in 2021
An activist places a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during a rally in support of anti-government protests in Belarus against presidential election results, in front of the Belarusian embassy in Kyiv, on August 30, 2020.
