Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’s iron-fisted leader, took the oath for his seventh term as president on Tuesday at the Independence Palace in Minsk, thumbing his nose at detractors who brand him “Europe’s last dictator.”

In a fiery inauguration speech, the 70-year-old declared, “Half the world dreams of our ‘dictatorship’—a dictatorship of real business and our people’s interests,” claiming Belarus boasts more democracy than its self-styled Western exemplars.

Lukashenko’s latest chapter follows a January 26 election, where he clinched nearly 87% of the vote, a landslide the Belarus Central Election Commission hailed but critics, including exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, slammed as a sham.

With four handpicked rivals showering him with praise, the tightly scripted race underscored his three-decade chokehold on power, cemented since 1994 with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s backing. Abroad, opposition supporters rallied in cities like Vilnius, marking the 1918 Belarusian independence anniversary with anti-regime fervor.

Inside Minsk, thousands of loyalists cheered as Lukashenko dismissed his foes as “foreign stooges” with “no future,” a jab at a fractured opposition reeling from his post-2020 crackdown. That year’s disputed vote sparked unprecedented protests across the 9-million-strong nation, met with a brutal response—over 65,000 arrests, beatings, and the shuttering of independent media.

Viasna Human Rights Center, led by jailed Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski, counts over 1,200 political prisoners, decrying an election steeped in “total fear.”

Lukashenko’s grip tightened after 2020, leaning on Putin’s subsidies and military might—Belarus hosted Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion and now houses tactical nuclear weapons. Yet, analyst Valery Karbalevich sees a shift: “He’s signaling the West, hinting at dialogue to loosen Moscow’s leash and ease sanctions.”