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1 [1] (February 11, 2025)

handle is hein.crs/goveslc0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Con r sWonal Resear h Sent iribu mu m Ln iatiw den -. co 1914 Updated February 11, 2025 Belarus: An Overview Belarus, located in eastern Europe, is a close ally of Russia. Belarus's authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has served as president for more than 30 years. Lukashenko has increased Belarus's dependency on Russia since 2020, when Belarusian authorities launched a crackdown on political opposition and civil society that UN and other international human rights monitors called unprecedented and catastrophic. Lukashenko's government has provided support to Russia's war against Ukraine, including by allowing Belarus to be used as a launchpad for the invasion in 2022. The first Trump Administration and the Biden Administration, together with the European Union (EU) and other U.S. allies, condemned the Lukashenko government's crackdown on dissent in Belarus and imposed sanctions in response. The Biden Administration also condemned Belarus's support for Russia's war against Ukraine and joined the EU in imposing additional sanctions on Belarus. Members of the 119th Congress may evaluate aspects of U.S. policy toward Belarus, including implications for U.S. and European security of Belarus's tightening alliance with Russia, the role of Belarus sanctions in promoting U.S. policy goals, an existing legislative requirement for the President to appoint a Special Envoy for Belarus, and U.S. engagement with Belarus's democratic movement abroad. PoIA B ackground Belarus, previously part of the Soviet Union, became independent after the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991. Lukashenko was first elected president in 1994, and he subsequently established an authoritarian system of governance. Lukashenko was reelected to a seventh presidential term on January 26, 2025, in an environment observers generally considered to be nondemocratic. According to official results, Lukashenko received 87% of the vote with 86% turnout; four nominal competitors each received 2%-3% of the vote. The EU and other U.S. allies issued a statement condemning Belarus's sham presidential elections. (The Trump Administration has not issued a statement on the elections.) The 2020 government crackdown in Belarus was a response to the rise of the country's largest mass opposition movement since independence. The movement arose out of protests against seemingly widespread electoral fraud in that year's presidential election, in which opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya mounted an unexpectedly strong campaign against Lukashenko. The official pronouncement that Lukashenko won the 2020 election with 80% of the vote led to protests. The crackdown that followed led to larger protests that, at their height, attracted hundreds of thousands. The crackdown has led to more than 50,000 arrests or detentions; at least 6,500 convictions; and at least 3,700 political prisoners (including at least 1,245 still in prison as of January 2025), according to Belarusian human rights monitors. In July 2024, Belarusian authorities launched an unprecedented series of pardons of such prisoners, issuing more than 200 by the end of the year. The UN Human Rights Office estimates that up to 300,000 people have fled Belarus since 2020, including Tsikhanouskaya (whose husband is in prison, as are other opposition figures). From neighboring Lithuania, Tsikhanouskaya formed a Coordination Council, a collective representative body of the democratic part of Belarusian society, and a United Transitional Cabinet, a self-declared interim government in exile. In 2023, a Belarusian court sentenced Tsikhanouskaya in absentia to 15 years in prison for allegedly conspiring to overthrow the government and other charges. In May 2024, Belarus's democratic movement abroad organized direct elections to the Coordination Council; about 6,700 online votes were cast. Figure I. Belarus at a Glance Sources: IMF; National Statistical Committee of Belarus. Since 2020, Belarusian authorities have further tightened restrictions against the exercise of human rights and freedoms. In 2021, the government passed laws on mass gatherings, mass media, and countering extremism that criminalized a broad range of dissent and political activism. A 2023 law enables authorities to revoke citizenship for extremism and causing grave harm to the interests of the state. The Belarusian government is responsible for at least 30 incidents of direct, physical transnational repression between 2014 and 2022, according to Freedom House, a nongovernmental organization. In 2021, authorities forced the landing of a commercial airliner flying from Greece to Lithuania to capture a Belarusian journalist who had facilitated 2020 postelection protests. In 2023, the government barred citizens abroad from obtaining or renewing passports from overseas. Belarus's most recent parliamentary elections, to the lower chamber of the National Assembly, were held in February 2024 with the participation of pro-government parties and candidates (elections to the upper chamber are indirect). These elections took place after Belarusian authorities did not renew the registration of opposition parties they deemed in noncompliance with new registration requirements.

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