Putin Ally Lukashenko Declared Winner in Belarus Election Scorned by the West as a Sham 

A handout photo made available by the Belarusian President's press service shows Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko casting his ballot as he votes in the presidential elections at a polling station in Minsk, Belarus, 26 January 2025. (EPA/Belarus President Press Service / Handout)
A handout photo made available by the Belarusian President's press service shows Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko casting his ballot as he votes in the presidential elections at a polling station in Minsk, Belarus, 26 January 2025. (EPA/Belarus President Press Service / Handout)
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Putin Ally Lukashenko Declared Winner in Belarus Election Scorned by the West as a Sham 

A handout photo made available by the Belarusian President's press service shows Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko casting his ballot as he votes in the presidential elections at a polling station in Minsk, Belarus, 26 January 2025. (EPA/Belarus President Press Service / Handout)
A handout photo made available by the Belarusian President's press service shows Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko casting his ballot as he votes in the presidential elections at a polling station in Minsk, Belarus, 26 January 2025. (EPA/Belarus President Press Service / Handout)

Belarusian leader and Russian ally Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule on Monday after electoral officials declared him the winner of a presidential election that Western governments rejected as a sham.

"You can congratulate the Republic of Belarus, we have elected a president," Igor Karpenko, the head of the country's Central Election Commission, told a news conference in the early hours of Monday.

Lukashenko, who faced no serious challenge from the four other candidates on the ballot, took 86.8% of the vote, according to initial results published on the Central Election Commission's official Telegram account.

European politicians said the vote was neither free nor fair because independent media are banned in the former Soviet republic and all leading opposition figures have either been jailed or forced to flee abroad.

"The people of Belarus had no choice. It is a bitter day for all those who long for freedom & democracy," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted on X.

Election officials said turnout was 85.7% in the election, in which 6.9 million people were eligible to vote.

Asked about the jailing of his opponents, Lukashenko had told a news conference on Sunday that they had chosen their own fate.

"Some chose prison, some chose 'exile', as you say. We didn't kick anyone out of the country," he told a rambling news conference that lasted more than four hours.

A close ally of President Vladimir Putin who allowed the Russian leader to use his country as a staging area for sending troops into Ukraine in 2022, Lukashenko had earlier defended his jailing of dissidents and declared: "I don't give a damn about the West."

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told Reuters this week that Lukashenko had engineered his re-election as part of a "ritual for dictators". Demonstrations against him took place on Sunday in Warsaw and other East European cities.

Lukashenko shrugged off the criticism as meaningless and said he did not care whether the West recognized the election.

PUTIN ALLY

The European Union and the United States both said they did not acknowledge him as the legitimate leader of Belarus after he used his security forces to crush mass protests following the last election in 2020, when Western governments backed Tsikhanouskaya's claim that Lukashenko had rigged the count and cheated her of victory.

Human rights group Viasna, which is banned as an "extremist" organization in Belarus, says there are still about 1,250 political prisoners in his jails though Lukashenko has freed more than 250 in the past year on what he called humanitarian grounds.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that Belarus had "just unilaterally released an innocent American", whom he named as Anastassia Nuhfer.

He gave no further details about the case, which had not been made public.

The war in Ukraine has bound Lukashenko more tightly than ever to Putin, and Russian tactical nuclear weapons are now deployed in Belarus.

If the conflict ends, political analysts say he is most likely to seek to restore his ties with the West in an attempt to get sanctions lifted.



China Urges US to ‘Correct Mistakes’ After State Department Website Drops Taiwan Independence Reference 

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun gestures during a press conference in Beijing, China, 17 February 2025. (EPA)
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun gestures during a press conference in Beijing, China, 17 February 2025. (EPA)
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China Urges US to ‘Correct Mistakes’ After State Department Website Drops Taiwan Independence Reference 

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun gestures during a press conference in Beijing, China, 17 February 2025. (EPA)
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun gestures during a press conference in Beijing, China, 17 February 2025. (EPA)

China on Monday urged the United States to "correct its mistakes" after the US State Department removed previous wording on its website about not supporting Taiwan independence, which it said was part of a routine update.

The fact sheet on Taiwan, updated last week, retains Washington's opposition to unilateral change from either Taiwan or from China, which claims the democratically governed island as its own.

But as well as dropping the phrase "we do not support Taiwan independence", the page added a reference to Taiwan's cooperation with a Pentagon technology and semiconductor development project and says the US will support Taiwan's membership in international organizations "where applicable".

Beijing regularly denounces any international recognition of Taiwan or contact between Taiwanese and foreign officials, viewing it as encouraging Taiwan's separate status from China.

The update to the website came roughly three weeks after US President Donald Trump was sworn in to his second term in the White House.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the revisions for Taiwan on the US State Department's website were a big step backwards and "sends a seriously wrong message to Taiwan independence separatist forces".

"This is yet another example of the United States' stubborn adherence to the erroneous policy of 'using Taiwan to suppress China'. We urge the United States side to immediately rectify its mistakes," Guo said.

The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is its strongest international backer, bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

"As is routine, the fact sheet was updated to inform the general public about our unofficial relationship with Taiwan," a State Department spokesperson said in an email sent late Sunday Taiwan time responding to questions on the updated website wording.

"The United States remains committed to its one China policy," the spokesperson said, referring to Washington officially taking no position on Taiwan's sovereignty and only acknowledging China's position on the subject.

"The United States is committed to preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," the spokesperson said.

"We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We support cross-Strait dialogue, and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to people on both sides of the Strait."

On Sunday, Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung expressed his appreciation for what he called the "support and positive stance on US-Taiwan relations".

Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying that only the island's people can decide their future.

Taiwan says it is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name. The Republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists, who set up the People's Republic of China.