For nearly a week, the whereabouts of Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko have been a mystery.
The 68-year-old was seen at a May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square, looking pale and bloated, and he skipped a celebratory breakfast in the Kremlin to fly home. Later that day, he appeared at similar event in his capital of Minsk to mark the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, but then skipped other scheduled appearances for days, feeding speculation on social media about his health.
The man who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for nearly three decades has been a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, allowing the Kremlin to use his country as a staging ground for its war in neighboring Ukraine, although he has stopped short of committing his troops to the conflict. He then skipped a Putin-hosted breakfast and flew home for the Victory Day ceremony in Minsk, although he failed to make a speech for the first time in years, delegating it to his defense minister.
Government officials have not commented on the unusual absence of Lukashenko, who typically appears at events and meetings almost daily, giving long, flamboyant speeches. The barrel-chested leader is often shown playing ice hockey or working in his vegetable garden. Asked Monday about Lukashenko's health before the Belta news agency's dispatch, spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged reporters to “focus on official reports.”
Putin supported Lukashenko in suppressing the demonstrations, and in return, the Belarusian leader threw his weight behind Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
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