On January 26, 2025, Alexander Lukashenko was elected president of Belarus for the seventh consecutive term. His rivals were technical candidates, and the real opposition that was formed during the 2020 elections is serving a sentence in prison or is in forced emigration. In Europe, these elections have already been dubbed "No Elections", and their results are not recognized, as well as the results of previous elections. The countries bordering Belarus have tightened border security and called for tougher sanctions against the country. The only intrigue of this election was whether the election commission would dare to attribute a higher percentage of votes to Lukashenko than to his Russian master Vladimir Putin (87%). Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Belarus Igor Karpenko said that more than 86%, but not 87%, voted for self-proclaimed head of state Alexander Lukashenko in the so-called "elections."

The atmosphere on the eve of these elections in Belarus was fundamentally different from that of 2020. In particular, there was no semblance of election campaigning and competition. For example, the presidential candidate of the Communist Party, Sergei Sirankov, openly supported Lukashenko. In addition, to give at least some semblance of democracy, Lukashenka pardoned 293 people convicted on political charges, and Belarusian propagandists showed for the first time the former 2020 presidential candidate Viktar Babarika, who has been in prison for years. At the same time, no prominent opposition figures were released. Voters in the presidential election were closely monitored by the police. Voting booths were open. Ballots were not allowed to be photographed. This year there were no polling stations abroad. Belarusians living abroad were invited by the CEC to come to Belarus. This option is not possible for those who left due to political persecution, received protection in one of the EU countries, and have not risked returning to Belarus for several years. For economic migrants, the road home was complicated by the fact that air traffic between the EU and Belarus was suspended. On the eve of the election, the Belarusian authorities interrupted the operation of at least six VPN services, and several foreign websites were down. Propagandistic Belarusian state channels convinced the country's residents that Lukashenko, although he had been in power for 30 years, was not holding on to it. The world is literally on the verge of World War III, and if so, we need to unite to avoid being drawn into it. Another favorite falsification of the Russian and Belarusian dictators is a record voting turnout. In addition, employees of state institutions were banned from taking vacations, chief doctors were required not to release or discharge patients until Monday, January 27, and even those in intensive care and terminal cancer patients were instructed to be included in the voter list. All of them had to "vote" even if they were not able to stand on their feet. 

Opposition-minded Belarusians have claimed that the country's January 26 presidential election is not genuine. Independent media outlets have been destroyed or exiled abroad, and there are no credible opposition candidates. After two politicians were denied registration, only five candidates ran, including Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994. Three of them represent pro-government parties, and one, Anna Kanapatskaya, is formally independent, but the opposition accuses her of being a puppet of the regime. The 2020 presidential election saw something that had not happened for many years. After several opposition leaders were imprisoned before the election campaign, another leader emerged - Svitlana Tikhanovska. And if the game was fair, she had a good chance of winning. However, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya lost the election, which the international community called fraudulent. But her campaign became extremely popular, energizing the weak Belarusian opposition and bringing tens of thousands of people to the streets to protest the election results. The protests were brutally dispersed. Thousands of people were arrested by security forces, many of whom claimed to have been ill-treated or tortured in detention. Tikhanovskaya was forced to flee and continue her work from Lithuania. Now facing imminent arrest if she returned to Belarus, she urged citizens to refrain from protesting, fearing that repression would be repeated. 

On January 17, the then US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Belarus' "repressive environment" was preventing legitimate democratic presidential elections. On January 22, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the elections as fraudulent. The resolution strongly condemns the presidential elections in Belarus, calling them a "sham" due to the repressive environment and lack of democratic standards. In the resolution, MEPs call on the EU to recognize the presidential elections in Belarus as a sham, 
continue investigations into human rights violations in the country and support measures to bring perpetrators to justice, including through the application of the legal principle of "universal jurisdiction."

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, together with the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Martha Kos, issued their own statement in which they emphasized that the "voting" that took place on January 26 in Belarus cannot be considered free and fair. "The elections in Belarus were not fair. The people of Belarus deserve a real say in who governs their country. Ruthless and unprecedented repression of human rights, restrictions on political participation and access to independent media in Belarus have deprived the election process of any legitimacy." German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock said that Belarusians were effectively deprived of a choice. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said that the vote "would have been called a presidential election if there had been grounds for that."

Alexander Lukashenko, before the elections, instead of discussing the topic of ensuring freedom of speech, assured that the Russian "Oreshnik" would allegedly be in Belarus "any day now" and his may be placed closer to the Russian city of  Smolensk, which is close to the Belarusian border.   Alexander Lukashenko has made a statement that he does not care whether the West recognizes the "elections" of the president that took place on January 26. The Belarusian dictator considers the "Oreshnik" to be the main achievement of his victory in the struggle for the presidency.