As the election in Belarus is labelled a “sham”, Hanna Liubakova joins Emma Nelson to discuss what lies ahead for Alexander Lukashenko and the country.

Participation in the presidential election has an impact on Belarus' economic growth, Director of the Institute of Economics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Denis Mukha told BelTA at the Central Election Commission Information Center on 26 January.

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of playing games with the West by drip-feeding releases of political prisoners ahead of an election on Sunday in which he is set to extend his 31-year rule.

A close ally of Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko has been nicknamed Europe’s last dictator, and has brutally cracked down on opposition figures and made the country a key staging ground for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Among the many dissident leaders now in exile is Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, whose husband remains in prison in Belarus.

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya criticizes Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's pre-election release of political prisoners as a deceitful tactic to appeal to the West. She urges the cessation of repression and the release of all prisoners,

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In an interview with Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos ... you call elections has nothing in common with this event in Belarus. Because it's mostly like a ritual for dictators, when ...

Belarus' gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 4 percent in 2024. Industry became the main driver of growth, with industrial production up by 5.4 percent last year. The real disposable income of Belarusians rose by 9.5 percent from January to November 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.

Pope Francis on Thursday urged political, economic and business leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos to keep close oversight of the development of artificial intelligence, warning the technology can exacerbate a growing "crisis of truth".

Canada said on Monday it would impose sanctions on 10 individuals and 12 entities in Belarus, citing what it called "gross and systematic human rights violations" by Minsk. In a statement, the foreign ministry also condemned what it called Sunday's fraudulent presidential election.

Belarus held an orchestrated election over the weekend that the opposition and the EU rejected as a farce, extending President Lukashenko's more than 30 years in power.