Alexander Lukashenko

Alexander Lukashenko has been the president of the Eastern European country of Belarus since 1994. Since 2020, he has come under increasing pressure from Western powers to resign, after he refused to accept his defeat in that year’s national elections.

However, Vladimir Putin’s influence in Belarus casts a longer shadow than the 5’6″ Russian president does in real life, and Lukashenko’s rule has so far endured. My guest for this episode is John Sweeney (@johnsweeneyroar on Twitter), formerly of the BBC programmes Newsnight and Panorama, and currently the host of the podcast Hunting Ghislaine.