January 2025 in Belarus is not one of them. Drive around Minsk and you'll see no big billboards promoting the portraits of candidates. There is little campaigning. The grey skies and sleet of a Belarusian winter add to an overriding sense of inactivity.

The presidential election in Belarus will be a landmark event for many people far beyond the Commonwealth of Independent States, CIS Secretary General and head of the CIS observation mission at Belarus' presidential election Sergei Lebedev said at a meeting of the CIS Advisory Council of Heads of Electoral Bodies,

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has pardoned another 15 prisoners shortly before the country's presidential election this weekend, state media reported on Friday. The state news agency BelTa reported that the released prisoners include eight who are serving sentences for extremism,