The Russian Foreign Ministry slammed the West's unsubstantiated statements on the election in Belarus as interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.

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.

People in Belarus and Russia, unlike people in many countries, have a voice, Ambassador of Belarus to Russia Aleksandr Rogozhnik said as he met with leader of the parliamentary faction of the New People Party Alexei Nechayev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated his colleague Alexander Lukashenko on being re-elected as the President of Belarus. "You are always a welcome and dear guest on Russian soil. As agreed,

Belarusians are voting in a closely-managed presidential election that is all but certain to extend the one-man rule of Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994 and Europe’s longest-serving leader.

Europe’s longest-serving leader won re-election in a contest widely believe to have been rigged. The result cements the power of a leader whose country is considered Russia’s staunchest ally.

MINSK - Reclusive Moscow-allied Belarus will hold a presidential election on Jan 26, with President Alexander Lukashenko set to cruise through to victory unchallenged for a seventh term, prolonging his three-decade authoritarian rule. Mr Lukashenko – a 70-year-old former collective farm boss – has been in power in Belarus since 1994.

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

Independent media are banned in Belarus and all leading opposition figures have been sent to penal colonies or exiled

The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that over 44,000 domestic and 486 international observers from 52 countries had monitored the election

Belarus held an orchestrated election over the weekend that the opposition and the EU rejected as a farce, extending President Lukashenko's more than 30 years in power.