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hen January 6 Next, smiling and sure of his victory, go to cast his vote in the presidential elections, that same day, Aleksandr Lukashenko will celebrate 30 years and six months as president of Belarus, one of the three Slavic republics – two of them, Russia and Ukraine , in a fratricidal war for two years and nine months – of the former Soviet Union.

He will prepare to govern for another five years, a seventh presidential term since he came to power in the summer of 1994, three years after the Soviet collapse. Unlike the previous elections in which, after making it impossible for the main opposition figures to run, he wanted to give a certain image of legitimacy to his re-election and suffered a devastating defeat due to the fatigue of the population who believed that their vote would be respected, This time he will only have as rivals groups that will compete among themselves in praising the only one who, in their opinion, deserves to guide the country to a bright future.

Five years ago, hundreds of thousands of people – Belarus has fewer inhabitants than the city of Moscow – filled the streets of Minsk and other Belarusian cities to protest the monumental fraud that stole victory from Svetlana Tijonovskaya, until excessive repression gradually extinguished little dissent, at least publicly.

A symbol of those protests, another brave woman, Maria Kolesnikova, who in 2020 was candidate Viktor Babariko’s campaign coordinator, until he was imprisoned, refused to leave the country and tore up her passport at the border.

For this reason, the Belarusian regime sentenced her to 11 years in prison for extremism and, as he did not plead guilty, he was isolated in prison from all contact with the outside world. With her health deteriorating, it is not excluded that Kolesnikova will throw in the towel, an opportunity that Lukashenko will without fail use to show his magnanimity and announce his pardon.

Five years after eliminating all political rivals, Lukashenko says: Not even God forbid that a woman govern Belarus. Here you have to be commander in chief of the army. It is very hard work, nothing ceremonial and the woman must be protected. Without detracting from his role, his mission is to be by our side.

With this cavernous vision of the world, he is convinced that only he is worthy of ruling.