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.

Russian state media has claimed that an Oreshnik missile launch from Belarus could reach London in just 8.8 minutes.

The smiling face of President Alexander Lukashenko gazed out from campaign posters across Belarus on Sunday as the country held an orchestrated election virtually guaranteed to give the 70-year-old autocrat yet another term on top of his three decades in power.

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 that Western governments rejected as a sham.

Victory “demonstrates your high political authority,” the Kremlin chief gushes about his counterpart in Minsk.

As Belarus votes amid repression, what drives Alexander Lukashenko, the president likely to secure a seventh term.

He still did not dare to surpass his ‘big brother’, but came close to his result: Vladimir Putin, according to the official version, gained 87.28% in last year’s elections.”

Ambassador of Belarus to Russia Aleksandr Rogozhnik thanked the president of Russia and Russian political parties for supporting Belarus as he met with leader of the parliamentary faction of the New People Party Alexei Nechayev in the State Duma on ,

As an East African bloc urged an immediate ceasefire in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwandan-backed M23 rebels who seized the city of Goma extended their advance on Wednesday, and Congo said it planned a campaign to recover lost territory.

Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, won re-election Sunday in an election without real competition and slammed by the EU as a “sham”, a state exit poll said.

Britain and Canada have imposed sanctions targeting the regime of Belarus' dictator president, Alexander Lukashenko, following his disputed election over the weekend to a seventh term.

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was on track to win a seventh five-year term with 87.6% of the vote in Sunday's election, according to an exit poll broadcast on state television.