2020–2021 Belarusian protests

The 2020 to 2021 Belarusian protests were a wave of demonstrations against the rule of President Alexander Lukashenko, who had held power since 1994. They began during the election campaign, when opposition candidates were jailed or barred, and grew massively after the August election, in which Lukashenko was declared the winner with about 80 percent of the vote, a result widely rejected as fraudulent. Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, who had stood in place of her jailed husband, claimed victory and left the country. The authorities responded with mass arrests and violence, and with reports of torture. The European Union and others imposed sanctions, and the movement was suppressed, with many activists jailed or exiled.

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