President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus plans to celebrate 30 years in power on Saturday. He is one of the longest-serving leaders in Europe.
Lukashenko came to power in an election in 1994, after a previous career as a Soviet farm manager, soldier and politician.
He has since crushed dissent in the country and solidified control over the country’s politics, turning Belarus into a Soviet ‘nostalgia’ state, with collective farms and Soviet iconography.
[Photo: Flickr]