Rights groups, activists and independent media in Russia and Belarus endured increased government scrutiny, repressive laws and even were shut down and forced to operate from exile abroad.

However, the flag of Belarus has been noticeably missing from the graphic next to her name, instead replaced with a simple blue rectangle. It's the third year that the Grand Slam has ruled that ...

With many of his political opponents either jailed or exiled abroad, Alexander Lukashenko, dubbed “Europe’s last dictator,” is all but certain to add a seventh term.

(AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov) A woman covers herself with an old Belarusian national flag while shouting at police during a protest near the residence of President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, Belarus, ...

There is one staple missing from world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka’s introduction to the court at the Australian Open – and it is the same reason she has a “blue flag”. It is the third year ...

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for over 30 years, is poised to extend his rule in an election that concludes Sunday and that the opposition dismisses as a ...

Several players at Australian Open 2025 have been competing without a national flag, with world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka included.

Within a year of assuming office, Lukashenko held a referendum that changed Belarus’s white-and-red flag to one closely resembling the old Soviet design. He told World War II veterans ...

The leader also pushed the country to abandon its red-and-white national flag, in favour of one similar to that which it used as a Soviet republic. Belarus' top security agency propagates fear ...

Voting started following a period of almost non-existent election fever. In the capital Minsk, there’s an almost total absence of billboards promoting the candidates and there has been little in the ...

Either maintaining Russia’s military bases in Syria or finding an alternative outpost in the Mediterranean will prove ...

Near a border checkpoint between Belarus and Ukraine, anti-tank spikes and concrete ... In the distance, a large blue and ...