Lukashenka, Alyaksandr Hrygorevich

born Aug. 30, 1954, Kopys, Vitebsk oblast, Belorussian S.S.R.

Belarusian politician who espoused communist principles and who became president of the country in 1994.

Lukashenka graduated from the Mogilyov Teaching Institute and the Belarusian Agricultural Academy. In the mid-1970s he was an instructor in political affairs, and he spent five years in the army. He subsequently held minor posts in the Komsomol (communist youth organization) and in local party organizations. From 1982 through 1990 he held management and party posts at collective and state farms and at a construction materials combine. He was elected to the parliament of the Belorussian S.S.R. in 1990.

In parliament Lukashenka created a faction called Communists for Democracy. He was the only deputy to oppose the December 1991 agreement that led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He maintained a close association with conservative communist factions in independent Belarus and had links with similar groups in Russia. In 1994 he addressed the Russian State Duma in Moscow with an appeal for the formation of a new union of Slavic states.

Lukashenka was elected president of Belarus in 1994. Among other things he promoted closer ties with Russia and in the succeeding years signed a number of agreements with Russian President Boris Yeltsin that called for various forms of union between the two countries. In 1996 he persuaded voters to approve a new constitution that gave him sweeping additional powers, including the right to prolong his term in office, to rule by decree, and to appoint one-third of the upper house of parliament. An authoritarian and unpredictable leader, he resisted economic and political reforms, suppressed dissent in the media and among the people, and led Belarus into isolation from its European neighbours and the international community.

In 1999 Lukashenka and Yeltsin succeeded in signing a Treaty on the Creation of a Union State, which proposed broad cooperation but stipulated independence for both states. Although Lukashenka's term of office had been scheduled to expire in 1999, he continued in office under the new terms he had negotiated. Reelected in 2001, he oversaw the passage in 2004 of a controversial amendment that allowed him to seek a third term. Lukashenka won the 2006 election amid allegations of tampering. Many countries and organizations condemned the election, and the European Union subsequently barred Lukashenka and a number of his officials from entering any of its member countries.