The E.U. has called the election a sham, and President Alexander Lukashenko has said he’s “too busy” to even campaign.

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of playing games with the West by drip-feeding releases of political prisoners ahead of an election on Sunday in which he is set to extend his 31-year rule.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the Davos Forum that a meeting with US President Donald Trump is being prepared, but no date has been set yet. He also reiterated the importance of strong security guarantees for Ukraine to bring an end to the active phase of the war.

With many of his political opponents either jailed or exiled abroad, 70-year-old Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is back on the ballot. When the election concludes on Sunday, he's all but certain to add a seventh term as the only leader most people in post-Soviet Belarus have ever known.

Pope Francis on Thursday urged political, economic and business leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos to keep close oversight of the development of artificial intelligence, warning the technology can exacerbate a growing "crisis of truth".

A close ally of Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko has been nicknamed Europe’s last dictator, and has brutally cracked down on opposition figures and made the country a key staging ground for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Among the many dissident leaders now in exile is Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, whose husband remains in prison in Belarus.

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,

The head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, today, from the rostrum of the World Forum in Davos, where he spoke as the leader of Europe, challenged US President Donald Trump. This was stated by political scientist Sergei Markov.

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 of sweeping repressions.

DAVOS, Switzerland - Exiled opposition leader ... world you call elections has nothing in common with this event in Belarus. Because it's mostly like a ritual for dictators, when they are ...

Gradually, as expected, the world calms down. Of all the "terrible" decrees of Trump, almost nothing has happened so far, except for the US withdrawal from the WHO and the climate agreement, as well as the removal of rainbow flags from US embassies.

As the week wrapped up, depressed Europeans got a much-needed boost from BlackRock boss Larry Fink, who told the final WEF panel that there’s too much pessimism around the Continent.