serviceyears branch children allegiance birth_date image_size term_start spouse rank image name caption predecessor birth_place party office website primeminister article_title birth_name
1975 -- 1977 1980 -- 1982 soviet border troops belarusian armed forces viktor dmitry nikolai soviet union belarus 30 august 1954 250px 20 july 1994 26 january 2000 galina zhelnerovich -lrb- 1975 -- present -rrb- marshal of belarus alexander_lukashenko_president_of_belarus . jpg alexander lukashenko lukashenko in july 2015 myechyslaw position established hryb -lrb- chairperson of the supreme soviet -rrb- kopys , soviet union -lrb- now belarus -rrb- communist 1991 -rrb- communists for democracy -lrb- 1991 -- 1992 -rrb- party independent -lrb- 1992 -- present -rrb- of the soviet union -lrb- 1979 -- president of the union state of belarus chairperson of the supreme state council -lsb- http://president.gov.by/en/ official website -rsb- mikhail sidorsky mikhail myasnikovich andrei kobyakov chigir sergey ling vladimir yermoshin gennady novitsky sergei alexander lukashenko
 alexander grigoryevich lukashenko
alexander lukashenko

alexander grigoryevich lukashenko -lrb- , born 30 august 1954 -rrb- is the president of belarus , having assumed the post on 20 july 1994 .
before his career as a politician , lukashenko worked as director of a state-owned agricultural farm and spent time with the soviet border troops and the soviet army .
when he first entered politics , he was seen as a champion against corruption and was the only deputy to vote against the independence of belarus from the soviet union .
lukashenko opposed western-backed `` shock therapy '' during the post-soviet transition .
he has retained soviet-era policies , such as continued state ownership of key industries , despite objections from western governments .
observers also contend that lukashenko presides over a regime steeped in soviet nostalgia .
he responds that his policies are the only alternative to instability , and have spared belarus from the poverty and oligarchy seen elsewhere in the former soviet republics .
belarus has been called `` europe 's last dictatorship '' by some western journalists , on account of lukashenko 's self-described authoritarian style of government .
lukashenko and other belarusian officials are also the subject of sanctions imposed by the european union and the united states for alleged human rights violations off and on since 2006 .
