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1 [1] (August 12, 2025)

handle is hein.crs/sgeju0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Inforrning the legislative debate since 1914 Updated August 12, 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 31 years. Lukashenko increased Belarus's dependency on Russia starting in 2020, when a government crackdown on political opposition and civil society that UN human rights monitors called unprecedented and catastrophic led to U.S. and European sanctions. 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. During the first half of 2025, Trump Administration officials met with Belarusian officials and attributed the release of some detained U.S. citizens and political prisoners to U.S. engagement. 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 starting in 2020 and imposed sanctions in response. The Biden Administration condemned Belarus's support for Russia's war against Ukraine and joined the EU in imposing further sanctions on Belarus. Members of the 119th Congress may evaluate aspects of U.S. policy toward Belarus, including the potential costs and benefits of Trump Administration engagement with Belarus, the role of Belarus sanctions in promoting U.S. policy goals, implications of Belarus's alliance with Russia for U.S. and European security, and U.S. engagement with Belarus's democratic movement abroad. Political Background 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 that observers generally considered 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 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 August 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. Five years later, the 2020 crackdown has led to more than 50,000 arrests or detentions; 7,300 convictions; and 4,060 political prisoners (including more than 1,180 still in prison as of August 2025), according to the Viasna Human Rights Center, a Belarusian nongovernmental organization. The UN Human Rights Office estimated in 2024 that up to 300,000 people had fled Belarus since 2020, including Tsikhanouskaya. Since 2020, Belarusian authorities have further tightened restrictions against the exercise of human rights and freedoms. In 2021, authorities forced the landing of a commercial airliner to capture a Belarusian journalist who allegedly had facilitated protests in 2020. Starting in July 2024, Belarusian authorities initiated a series of pardons, freeing more than 330 prisoners by July 2025, according to Viasna. In June 2025, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a prominent prisoner and Tsikhanouskaya's husband, was released after five years of imprisonment (also see U.S. Policy and Congressional Interests). Figure I. Belarus at a Glance Sources: IMF; National Statistical Committee of Belarus. In 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. Belarus's most recent parliamentary elections, to the lower e 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 requirements. In 2022, amendments to Belarus's constitution, among other changes, altered the status of a 1,200-member All- Belarusian People's Assembly (composed of central and local government officials and other appointed delegates), elevating it to the highest representative body of people's >orts.congress-qov