Long-time leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, once dubbed “Europe’s last dictator”, has been re-elected president with 86.8% of the vote.
The result has been condemned as a sham by Lukashenko’s opponents and Western governments.
There were four other names on the ballot – carefully chosen to present no challenge to the current leadership – and no credible contenders were allowed to take part in the election, as all opposition figures are either in jail or in exile abroad.
In a mammoth four-and-a-half hour press conference on Sunday evening, the BBC’s Russia editor Steve Rosenberg asked questions about democracy and political prisoners.
