Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko extended his more than three decades in power in an orchestrated weekend election that the opposition and the European Union rejected as a farce.

The European Union rejected the election in Belarus on Sunday as illegitimate and threatened new sanctions.Belarus held an orchestrated vote virtually guaranteed to give 70-year-old autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko yet another term on top of his three decades in power.

After 15 years have passed but the EU’s reaction has remained as hostile as ever, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov said.

"All necessary conditions and a calm environment were created for the voters, so that they could cast their votes without any coercion,” Maksim Ryzhenkov said.

Belarusian leader and Russian ally Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule on Monday after electoral officials declared him the winner of a presidential election Western governments rejected as a sham.

Belarus “unilaterally” freed an American woman, Anastassia Nuhfer, from detention, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Sunday.

Some 13,000 border guards and soldiers protect around 400 kilometers (250 miles) of border. It’s become a buffer zone since Belarus’ ally, Russia, invaded neighboring Ukraine three years ago. Similar fortifications farther north line Poland’s frontier with the Russian region of Kaliningrad.

“Today’s sham election in Belarus has been neither free, nor fair,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos said in a joint statement. “The relentless ...

Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko extended his more than three decades in power in Sunday’s orchestrated election that the opposition and the European Union rejected as a ...

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko is all but certain to extend his more than three decades in power in Sunday’s election that is rejected by the opposition as a farce after years o

European Union home affairs ministers meet in Warsaw on Thursday to discuss migration and the internal security of the bloc. As capitals take increasingly restrictive positions on migration, ministers are expected to discuss a pending proposal by the European Commission for more effective deportations.