Belarusian President Lukashenko has approved a law that significantly strengthens his powers

And on Wednesday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko And he agreed Finally, a law grants him lifelong immunity against any criminal proceedings against him, and prevents opposition leaders residing abroad from running in the presidential elections.

theoretically the law It applies to every president of the country and their family members, but in fact it currently only applies to Lukashenko, the 69-year-old who has ruled Belarus in an authoritarian manner since 1994. After the text is approved, it will be implemented. It is no longer possible to prosecute the president for the alleged crimes that He committed it while exercising his duties. The law also provides that the president and his family have a lifelong right to security, health insurance, life insurance, and medical care services provided to the president while he is in office.

The rule also stipulates that only Belarusian citizens who have lived permanently in the country for the past 20 years can run for president. This condition leads to the exclusion of some well-known opposition figures from the next elections scheduled for 2025: the most important of which is Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who since 2020 Lives in Lithuania.

This is not the first time that Lukashenko has agreed to a measure of this kind: last September, for example, he approved it Law This prevents Belarusian citizens living outside the country from renewing their passports from abroad, forcing them to return to Belarus or lose the ability to travel.

Lukashenko rules Belarus in an undemocratic manner. Among other things, in 2020 he was accused of tampering with the voting processes that allowed him on August 9 of that year to obtain a sixth presidential term: there were massive protests in many cities, which lasted for months and led to the arrest of thousands. Of people. From the public. He is also a very close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and thus a major supporter of the invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022.