The Phenomenon of Political Populism in the Republic of Belarus and its Impact on Modern Russian-Belarusian Relations

The presidential elections in the Republic of Belarus caused the political crisis and, thus, the political regime in Belarus largely based on the figure of country’s president Alexander Lukashenko, who extensively resorted to populism in his politics, became an increasingly important concern. Even though numerous academic papers have described the phenomenon of populism, and few studies described its specifics in European settings, little comprehensive research in the field of Belarusian populism as a key feature of current government’s politics and Alexander Lukashenko’s image has been conducted yet. At the same time, there has been a growing need to explore this area in greater detail given the current context framed by anti-authoritarian protests in Belarus and the instability of the political regime. The purpose of this research is to identify the key features of political populism in the Republic of Belarus and its influence on modern Russian-Belarusian relations. To achieve the research goals, we will employ a multi-method research design with a special focus on content analysis of public speeches and political documents of the Belarusian political elite. We expect to gain a deep understanding of the populism phenomenon in Belarusian settings and evaluate the possible scenarios of Russian-Belarusian relations development.