Yuras Karmanau

Rights groups, activists and independent media in Russia and Belarus endured increased government scrutiny, repressive laws and even were shut down and forced to operate from exile abroad.

Belarus’ opposition activists and Western officials have denounced an orchestrated election that extended the over three-decade rule of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko is all but certain to extend his more than three decades in power in Sunday’s election.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for over 30 years, is poised to extend his rule in an election that concludes Sunday and that the opposition dismisses as a farce.

Ales Bialiatski, a human rights advocate who won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Belarus and is one of hundreds of its political prisoners.

A Catholic priest in Belarus has been convicted on charges of high treason for criticizing the government and handed an 11-year sentence, in the first case of politically-driven charges against Catholic clergy since Belarus became independent in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Belarusian authorities have arrested seven journalists who worked for an independent regional news outlet, the latest move in a sweeping crackdown on dissent and freedom of speech by the country’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

A Belarusian journalist has been handed a prison sentence for critical reports chronicling a sweeping crackdown on dissent launched by the country’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarus is cracking down on its LGBTQ+ community, detaining and beating nearly three dozen of them in the last three months.

A human rights report says hundreds of people in Belarus who have shown solidarity with Ukraine have been arrested in a sweeping crackdown under authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.