Lukashenko plans 'people's assembly' but Belarus reform unlikely
udf.byBelarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, who last autumn promised a transition to a parliamentary system of government. Photograph: Tut.by/AFP/Getty President who won rigged election last August has backing of Putin and has resumed attacks on dissent Nearly six months after huge street protests over a rigged presidential election were met with a ruthless, violent crackdown by his riot police, the Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko is still clinging on to power, and appears more determined than ever to prevail in his standoff with much of the country’s population.