To maintain his grip on power, Aleksandr Lukashenko, the 26-year president of Belarus who fraudulently claimed victory in the country’s Aug. 9 presidential election, relies on two factors: support from Russia and backing from Belarus’ powerful security services. Patience in Moscow with Lukashenko may be running thin, as evidenced by the recent visit to Minsk by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, but the Kremlin doesn’t appear ready to abandon Lukashenko yet.
Foreign Policy: In Belarus, cracks appear among Lukashenko’s security forces after months of protests
Opposition supporters march from central Minsk to a site of Stalin-era executions just outside the capital on November 1, 2020. - Police in Belarus on November 1 dispersed protesters who had been marching from central Minsk to a Stalin-era execution site in the latest of weeks of demonstrations against strongman Alexander Lukashenko's disputed re-election. The march was dedicated to both commemorating victims of Stalin-era repression and keeping pressure on the Lukashenko regime. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP)
