VLADIMIR Putin’s best pal has ‘won’ a sham election with 87 per cent of the vote and is now set to host the Russian dictator’s “unstoppable” new missiles.
Alexander Lukashenko, 70, will continue his 30-year iron-fisted rule of Belarus after he rigged Sunday’s poll.
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The dictator never faced proper opposition after he ruthlessly crushed protests following his 2020 election ‘win’.
There were four candidates running against Lukashenko in this year’s choreographed race – but all were loyal to him.
In a symbolic but bizarre moment, the mustachioed strongman’s little, fluffy, white Spitz dog urinated against a door at the polling station where dictator voted.
Then, as the ‘vote’ was ongoing, Lukashenko held a televised four-hour press conference.
He declared his political opponents were free to make democratic choices about how they would let him win.
Lukashenko said: “Everyone has the right to choose. That is democracy.
“Some chose prison, others chose exile. We never forced anyone out of the country.”
Western politicians have slated the election as a “sham” while the Kremlin lauded Lukashenko’s win as “predictable”.
His total of 86.8 per cent was just lower than Putin’s ‘election’ in March last year – where Vlad polled 88.5 per cent.
Polling higher than his more powerful pal Putin, 72, could have left the Belarusian red-faced.
Lukashenko has been Putin’s closest ally in the invasion of Ukraine and has hosted the Russian army before it crossed the border to attack Kyiv.
He is now set to host Putin’s new Oreshnik ‘unstoppable wonder’ missiles as Putin threatens to use them against his enemies.
Lukashenko said during Sunday’s press conference that the “terrible” missiles could arrive “any day now”.
The ICBMs would be able to hit Britain in less than nine minutes and are Russia’s most powerful non-nuclear bombs.
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Vlad is looking to spread the missiles out around Russia and with his pals as Ukraine can target them with drones.
Putin has already fired an Oreshnik against Ukraine, striking Dnipro in November, and pledged to Kyiv “to dust” with it.
But Lukashenko also let slip that Putin is having problems mass producing Oreshnik, unable to rapidly manufacture ten missile systems.
He said that Oreshnik wouldn’t be rapidly produced for another two or three years.
Some believe that Putin is using the Oreshnik as a bluff to try and bully the West into giving up Ukraine.
They believe he cannot mass produce the missile “given the bureaucracy and backwardness” and production could even take up to seven years.
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The charred wreckage of the missile were seen for the first time in unbelievable images, allowing Ukrainian experts to study the debris and gain insight into Russian military supply chains.
Putin gloated: “These are quite powerful elements that are heated up to a temperature of 4,000 degrees centigrade.
“A kinetic impact, a massive impact – like a meteorite falling.”
Lukashenko, who used to be known as ‘Europe’s last dictator’, has been propped up by the Kremlin and is one of Vlad’s last friends.
He has also agreed to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons in his country on Russia’s western border.
But Lukashenko has stood up to Putin and told him to end the war in Ukraine.
He has shared fears that the bloody conflict could spill over into his country and swore that neither he nor Putin want a wider war with Nato.
He has moved troops to the border with Ukraine fearing Kyiv could conduct a Kursk-style blitz into Belarusian land.
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