Lukashenko brushes off concerns over democratic backsliding, claims he works, rather than rules

"As for the last dictator of Europe, you should be apologizing to me already," Lukashenko said.

“You should have already moved away from this definition. I am not a dictator, and even if I am, I am not the last one.”

"If you think that while in power here, I have received something excessive, or if I have received anything at all, you are mistaken."

“There is nothing of the sort. I work in a big, high position that the people have entrusted to me. I am working. I am not ruling.”

In fact, Lukashenko is a dictator, frequently rigging elections in Belarus to make it appear he has legitimacy and popular support. In power since July 1994, he brutally repressed Belarusians in 2020 following sham presidential elections that observers condemned as neither free nor fair, his secret police throwing hundreds of opposition activists into prison.

Lukashenko issued a new series of threats and fake grievances against the collective West on June 30.

The BelTA news agency quoted Lukashenko making claims that Western politicians were "putting Europe's head on a nuclear guillotine with their own hands," while harboring "hatred for everything Slavic."

Lukashenko's remarks echoed narratives promoted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and have been criticized as reflecting an authoritarian worldview that casts the West as an enemy.