Alexander Lukashenko wearing the uniform of the Commander-in-Chief of the Belarusian Armed Forces (rank Marshal of Belarus).

Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (Belarusian: Алякса́ндр Рыго́равіч Лукашэ́нка , Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka, Russian: Алекса́ндр Григо́рьевич Лукаше́нко; born 30 August 1954) is the President of Belarus, in office since 20 July 1994. Before his career as a politician, Lukashenko worked as director of a state-owned agricultural farm and spent time with the Soviet Border Troops and the Soviet Army. He was the only deputy to vote against the independence of Belarus from the Soviet Union.

Lukashenko opposed Western-backed "shock therapy" during the post-Soviet transition. He has retained Soviet-era policies, such as continued state ownership of key industries, despite objections from Western governments.

In 1995, Lukashenko was accused of making a remark which has been construed to be in praise of Adolf Hitler: "The history of Germany is a copy of the history of Belarus. Germany was raised from ruins thanks to firm authority and not everything connected with that well-known figure Hitler was bad. German order evolved over the centuries and attained its peak under Hitler."

In October 2007, Lukashenko was accused of making anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments; addressing the "miserable state of the city of Babruysk" on a live broadcast on state radio, he stated: "This is a Jewish city, and the Jews are not concerned for the place they live in. They have turned Babruysk into a pigsty. Look at Israel – I was there and saw it myself ... I call on Jews who have money to come back to Babruysk." Members of the US House of Representatives sent a letter to the Belarusian ambassador to the US, Mikhail Khvostov, addressing Lukashenko's comments with a strong request to retract them,[119] and the comments also caused a negative reaction from Israel. On 4 March 2012, two days after EU leaders (including openly gay German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle) had called for new measures to pressure Lukashenko over alleged human rights abuses in Belarus at a summit in Brussels, Lukashenko provoked diplomatic rebuke from Germany after commenting that it was "better to be a dictator than gay" in response to Westerwelle having referred to him as "Europe's last dictator" during the meeting.