Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has signalled he does not intend to seek another term in office, while rejecting speculation that he is lining up his son as successor.
The self-professed “last and only dictator in Europe” hinted at his intentions in an interview with TIME magazine, saying that whoever replaces him should “not break anything right away”, but keep developing the country in order to avoid any “revolutionary breakdown”.
The 70-year-old, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has led Belarus through more than three decades of authoritarian rule and was re-elected in January for a seventh five-year term.
Asked by TIME’s interviewer whether he would stand in the next election, he said he was “not planning” anything, though he did teasingly add that his United States counterpart, Donald Trump, was “looking decent” at nearly 80.
Lukashenko also rejected longstanding speculation that he might be grooming his son Nikolai to succeed him.
“No, he is not a successor. I knew you would ask that. No, no, no. Ask him yourself, he may be really offended,” he said in excerpts from the conversation, published in Russian by Belarusian state news agency BelTA.
Lukashenko told TIME that he was actually ready to step down in the last election, but changed his mind after the public demanded he remain in his post because they were not ready for him to go.
But critics, including German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, said at the time that the vote was neither free nor fair, largely because all leading opposition figures had either been jailed or forced to seek exile abroad.
Lukashenko was also accused of rigging the 2020 election, which ended with nationwide protests and a sweeping security crackdown.
Several hundred people convicted of “extremism” and other politically related offences have been released since mid-2024, but rights groups say nearly 1,200 are still behind bars.
Lukashenko denies there are any political prisoners in the country.
In 2012, Lukashenko told the news agency Reuters, “I am the last and only dictator in Europe. Indeed, there are none anywhere else in the world.”
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