The father of imprisoned Belarusian opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova says she's considering asking authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko for a pardon after more than four years behind bars.

Human rights activists say imprisoned Belarusian opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova has resurfaced after more than 20 months without any communication from her, and has met with her father.

Belarus’ election commission has allowed seven politicians loyal to President Alexander Lukashenko to start collecting signatures to run in January’s election in an apparent bid to create a semblance of competition to the longtime authoritarian ruler.

A noted Belarusian film director and dissident who was held in Serbia for a year while Belarus sought his extradition has been released and gone to Germany.

Lawmakers in Belarus set the next presidential election for Jan. 26, a vote almost certain to extend the three-decade rule of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

An independent journalist in Belarus has been arrested on treason charges, the latest move in a relentless crackdown on news media by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s government.

The last time any of Maria Kolesnikova’s family had contact with the imprisoned Belarusian opposition activist was more than 18 months ago.

A Belarusian-American has had his prison term extended to a total of 13 1/2 years in the latest move in a multi-pronged crackdown on dissent by Belarus’ authoritarian government.

Belarusian opposition leader in exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Thursday said 224 political prisoners in Belarus must be urgently released.

Belarusians are experiencing a new wave of Russification as Moscow expands its economic, political and cultural dominance to overtake the identity of its neighbor.

More than a half-million Belarusians have fled their country since 2020 as the authoritarian government cracked down its critics.

Russia has announced increased security measures in the border region of Kursk.

A wave of disappointment swept over opposition activists in Belarus last week as the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War unfolded and they learned it included none of the Belarusian political detainees who’ve been locked up for years by its authoritarian leader.

Belarus’ authoritarian leader has granted pardon to a German citizen who has been sentenced to death on terrorism charges.

Hard-line President Alexander Lukashenko has led Belarus for 30 years and intends to seek yet another term in office.

For three decades, European leaders have come and gone, but Alexander Lukashenko remains in absolute control of Belarus.

The wife of an imprisoned Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize laureate says that the Belarusian authorities are depriving her husband of medicine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have met for the second time in as many months as they visit Kazakhstan for a session of an international group founded to counter Western alliances.

Poland says neighboring Belarus and its main supporter and ally Russia are behind a recent surge in migrants from Belarus toward the European Union.

Hungary’s top diplomat has visited Belarus for talks on expanding ties despite the European Union’s sanctions against the country.

Authorities in Belarus have announced raids and the seizure of property of 104 opposition activists who have fled the country.

A Belarusian hacker activist group claims to have infiltrated the network of the country’s main security agency and obtained access to personal files of over 8,600 staffers of the KGB, the security service that still goes under its Soviet name.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has mocked a planned round of Ukraine peace talks in Switzerland, warning that Moscow will not accept any enforced agreements ignoring its interests.

A prominent journalist in Belarus has been designated a political prisoner by the country’s leading human rights group.

Thousands of Belarusians have been convicted on politically driven charges over the last three years as part of a relentless crackdown on dissent.

Belarus is voting in tightly controlled parliamentary and local elections that are set to cement the authoritarian leader’s rule despite opposition calls for a boycott.

Dozens of clergy in Belarus — Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant — have been jailed, silenced or forced into exile for protesting the 2020 election that gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term.

The family of imprisoned Belarusian opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova says it hasn't received a letter from her for a year.

The leaders of Russia and Belarus have discussed ways to further expand their alliance that has seen the deployment of some of Russia’s nuclear weapons on the territory of its neighbor.

The Russian city of St. Petersburg has marked the 80th anniversary of the end of a nearly 900-day siege by Nazi forces.

A human rights group says that a political prisoner has died in prison in Belarus after authorities failed to provide him with proper medical care.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a law into effect that significantly tightens control over various religious denominations and organizations.

The president of Belarus says Russia has completed its shipments of short-range, tactical nuclear weapons to his country, an initiative that has raised strong concerns in neighboring Poland and elsewhere in the region.

A human rights activist imprisoned for three years in Belarus accused authorities of holding political prisoners in conditions amounting to “torture.”.

More than 2,400 Ukrainian children aged 6-17 have been taken to Belarus from four regions of Ukraine that are partially occupied by Russian forces, a study by Yale University has found.

An exiled Belarus activist has presented a second dossier of evidence to the International Criminal Court that he says proves the personal involvement of President Alexander Lukashenko in the illegal transfer of children to Belarus from Russian-occupied towns in Ukraine.

Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians who fled repression in their homeland face the prospect of having invalid documents after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree halting passport renewals abroad.

The international Red Cross is calling for the ouster of the head of the Belarus Red Cross, who stirred international outrage for boasting that it was actively ferrying Ukrainian children from Russian-controlled areas to Belarus.

The foreign minister of Belarus says he can't envision a situation where his country would enter the war in Ukraine alongside Russian forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hosted a meeting with his Belarusian ally, who referred to this week’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and suggested that Minsk could join Moscow’s efforts to revive an old alliance with Pyongyang.

Belarus’ authoritarian president banned citizens from renewing their passports while staying abroad, which could force those who fled the country amid growing repression to return to maintain their travel documents.

Yevgeny Prigozhin made his name as the profane and brutal mercenary boss who mounted an armed rebellion that was the most severe and shocking challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda confirms that Russia has begun shifting some short-range nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus.

Poland is deploying thousands of troops to its border with pro-Russian Belarus, calling it a deterrent move as tensions between the neighbors ratchet up.

NATO allies located along the alliance’s eastern front are growing increasingly worried about the presence of Russia-linked Wagner group mercenaries in Belarus.

Sometime this summer, if President Vladimir Putin can be believed, Russia moved some of its short-range nuclear weapons into Belarus, closer to Ukraine and onto the doorstep of NATO’s members in Central and Eastern Europe.

A prominent journalist in Belarus has been sentenced to six years in prison, the latest step in a years-long crackdown on opposition figures, independent journalists and human rights activists.

Officials from many of the sports on the Olympic program are still split on how to treat Russian athletes one year before the Paris Games and nearly a year-and-a-half since the country's invasion of Ukraine.

A new video appears to show Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin for the first time since he led a short-lived rebellion last month, and he is seen telling his troops they will spend time in Belarus training its military before deploying to Africa.

Authorities in Belarus have arrested a prominent journalist working with the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the latest step in a yearslong crackdown on opposition figures, independent journalists and human rights activists.

More mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner military contractor have rolled into Belarus, continuing their relocation to the ex-Soviet nation following last month’s short-lived mutiny.

An independent monitoring group says a large convoy carrying fighters from the Wagner private army has been spotted entering Belarus from Russia.

The Belarusian military has shown off a field camp it has offered to Russia’s Wagner military contractor if it relocates to Belarus under a deal that ended its mutiny.

Russia’s rebellious mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin walked free from prosecution for his June 24 armed mutiny, and it’s still unclear if anyone will face any charges in the brief uprising against the military or for the deaths of the soldiers killed in it.

The president of Belarus says the mercenary leader who led a short-lived mutiny against the Kremlin is in Russia and his troops are in their field camps.

Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press show what appeared to be a newly built military-style camp in Belarus.

A week after the mutiny raised the most daunting challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s rule in over two decades, key details about the uprising remain shrouded in mystery.

As life in Russia returns to normal after an armed rebellion by a mercenary group, tensions are rising in and around its neighbor Belarus, where the exiled leader of the force and some of its fighters are settling in.

The dramatic rebellion by a mercenary warlord in Russia that challenged President Vladimir Putin was punctuated by dramatic language of the key protagonists – and some long silences.

A Belarusian opposition figure says that he has provided the International Criminal Court with materials that allegedly detail President Alexander Lukashenko's involvement in the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to Belarus.

Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was notorious for unbridled and profane challenges to authority even before the attempted rebellion that he mounted Saturday.

For nearly three years, a harsh crackdown on dissent in Belarus by its authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko has filled the country’s penal colonies with thousands of political prisoners, with new arrests reported daily.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the military organization has seen no evidence that Russia has changed its nuclear posture.

Belarus' authoritarian leader says his country has already received some of Russia's tactical nuclear weapons, emphasizing that he wouldn't hesitate to order their use in the event of an aggression against his country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Moscow will deploy some of its tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus next month, a move that the Belarusian opposition described as an attempt to blackmail the West.

Belarus’ Supreme Court on Friday upheld an eight-year prison sentence that was handed to a journalist and prominent member of the country’s sizable Polish minority.

Russia and Belarus signed a deal formalizing the deployment of Moscow’s tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of its ally, although control of the weapons remains in the Kremlin.

The wife of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski says he's been transferred to a notoriously brutal prison in Belarus and hasn’t been heard from in a month.

For nearly a week, the whereabouts of Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko have been a mystery.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has welcomed thousands of Russian troops to his country, allowed the Kremlin to use it to launch the invasion of Ukraine last year, and offered to station some of Moscow’s tactical nuclear weapons there.

European lawmakers have urged the International Olympic Committee to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Paris Games because of the war in Ukraine.

Lithuania is seeking up to 120 million euros in compensation from Belarus, accusing its eastern neighbor of orchestrating the illegal immigration of thousands of people.

A prominent Polish minority activist has been released from custody in Belarus after the authorities dropped criminal charges against her.

Russia and the U.S. have clashed in the United Nations over Moscow’s plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Belarus' president says Russian strategic nuclear weapons might be deployed in his country along with part of Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that he intends to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on seven Belarusian elections officials, two state-owned automotive manufacturers and President Alexander Lukashenko’s aircraft.

The head of Iran’s judiciary says more than 22,000 people arrested in the recent protests that swept the Islamic Republic have been pardoned.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, guerrillas from Belarus began carrying out acts of sabotage on their country’s railways.

A court in Belarus has sentenced exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to 15 years in prison after a trial in absentia on charges including conspiring to overthrow the government.

A Belarusian court has sentenced Ales Bialiatski, Belarus’ top human rights advocate and one of the winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, to 10 years in prison.

The presidents of China and Belarus have joined in urging a cease-fire and negotiations to bring about a political settlement to the Ukraine conflict.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, is due in Beijing to begin a three-day state visit.

China says Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a close ally of the Russian leader, will visit Beijing this week.

A funeral for a Belarusian military volunteer and dissident was held in Ukraine's capital.

A Belarusian track coach who tried to force a sprinter to return home from the Tokyo Olympics after she was critical of the team has been charged with breaching the sport’s integrity standards.

A trial in absentia has opened for Belarus’ top opposition leader who denounced the proceedings as a farce and urged the West to bolster support for the country’s beleaguered opposition.

Belarus has opened the trial of a journalist and prominent member of the country’s sizable Polish minority.

Belarusian investigators are using a photo of an opposition politician shaking hands with former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as evidence in a criminal case tied to the mass protests after Belarus’ disputed 2020 presidential election.

A human rights group says an opposition politician who ran against authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has been arrested in Minsk.

A Belarusian court has opened the trial of jailed human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, one of the winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare trip to close ally Belarus as his forces pursue their campaign to bombard Ukraine with missiles and drones amid a broad battlefield stalemate almost 10 months into the war.

The winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have shared their visions of a fairer world during an award ceremony and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

A representative of one of the organizations sharing this year’s Nobel Peace Prize says Russian President Vladimir Putin should face an international tribunal for the fighting in Ukraine.

Imprisoned Belarusian human rights campaigner Ales Bialiatski, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with rights groups in Russia and Ukraine, hasn’t been allowed by Belarus authorities to hand over his speech for the award ceremony.

Belarus has given a state funeral to its foreign minister who died suddenly at age 64, triggering speculation about possible foul play in his death after he leaned toward Western countries.

The Belarusian state news agency says that the foreign minister has died at the age of 64.

The fall of the Berlin Wall more than 30 years ago symbolized hope for cooperation with Moscow.

The Polish border service has reported an uptick in Middle Eastern migrants trying to illegally cross into the European Union at the border of Belarus and Poland.