Belarusian leader rules out another presidential bid

PanARMENIAN.Net - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview with Time magazine that he no longer considers running in another presidential election. “No, I no longer plan to, no longer plan to,” he replied, as quoted by Gazeta.ru.

Earlier, Lukashenko admitted he had “stayed in power a bit too long” in order to prepare for a leadership transition. He noted that a new generation would eventually take over, but stressed the need to assess “what our youth is capable of.” He added that Belarus’s current authorities “love their country and want to preserve it not so much for themselves as for their children.”

Lukashenko also told TASS that he does not see his youngest son, Nikolai, among the country’s major political figures and asked people not to call him his heir. “No, he is not a successor. I knew you’d want to ask that. No, no. Ask him — you could offend him deeply with that,” Lukashenko said.

According to him, Nikolai is “somewhat of an opposition figure,” although he supports his father’s work, “understands and is aware of everything.”

On January 27 this year, Lukashenko won the Belarusian presidential election again, securing 86.82 percent of the vote. The 70-year-old politician is Belarus’s first and so far only president, holding office continuously since July 20, 1994. During his tenure, he has contested the presidential elections in 1994, 2001, 2006, 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025.