Belarusian leader and Russian ally Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule on Monday after electoral officials declared him the winner of a presidential election that Western governments rejected as a sham.
“You can congratulate the Republic of Belarus, we have elected a president,” Igor Karpenko, the head of the country’s Central Election Commission, told a news conference in the early hours of Monday.
Lukashenko, who faced no serious challenge from
