LUKASHENKO GROOMING SON AS SUCCESSOR
MOSCOW • For 21 years, Alexander Lukashenko has ruled Belarus with an iron fist, jailing opponents, crushing opposition marches, and, many believe, sanctioning the murder of rivals.
In an election at the weekend that surprised no one, Lukashenko extended his rule in Belarus into a third decade receiving 83.5 per cent of Sunday’s vote.
But now he appears to be laying plans to turn his authoritarian regime into a North-Korean style dynasty, with his 11-year-old son Nikolai as his chosen heir.
As he cast his ballot in Belarus’s presidential elections Sunday, the man known as Europe’s last dictator was accompanied not by his estranged wife, or even one of his rumoured mistresses, but a small blond boy in blue suit.
The grooming of “Kolya,” as he is popularly known, began in 2008, when the fouryear-old child appeared alongside his father in military uniform to review an annual Independence Day parade in Minsk.
Since then he has emerged as Belarus’s president-in-waiting, joining his father on diplomatic missions where foreign leaders have been obliged to treat the young boy as an official guest.
By the age of seven, he had met Pope Benedict XVI, Venezuela’s former president, Hugo Chavez, and the president of Russia at the time, Dmitry Medvedev, who gave him a golden pistol.
He has presided over military parades in a replica of his father’s uniform, and been photographed at military exercises with the golden sidearm in the belt of his camouflage uniform. When Kolya high-fived Hugo Chavez in 2012, his suit jacket slipped back to reveal a holstered pistol on his belt.
Lukashenko has not disclosed the identity of Nikolai’s mother, but he is believed to be the son of Irina Abelskaya, his former personal doctor and at least his second mistress since becoming president. Lukashenko also has two adult sons by his estranged wife.
It is a promotion of dynastic heritage that has drawn a mixture of disgust and pity from the opposition. “When I see this young kid being used to humiliate foreign leaders, I just feel sorry for him,” said Andrei Sannikov, a former opposition presidential candidate now living in exile. “I don’t understand why they put up with it.”
The constitution sets 35 as the minimum age for a president, meaning Lukashenko would have to serve another 25 years to ensure succession.
“Dynastic succession is a long-term possibility. But Kolya is very young, and that is deliberate: it sends the message. ‘I may be grooming my son for power, but you won’t be rid of me any time soon,’ ” said Andrew Wilson, of the European Council for Foreign Relations.