FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and his Belarus counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, talk at an economic summit in the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 23, 2014. (AP Photo/ Maxim Shipenkov, Pool, File)
FILE - A woman walks past a poster that reads "Referendum on constitutional amendments" in Minsk, Belarus, on Feb. 18, 2022. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Belarusian athletes carry the country’s flag during celebrations marking Independence Day in Minsk, Belarus, on July 3, 2013. (AP Photo, File)
FILE – A protester holds a red-and-white flag that was a symbol of the opposition in front of a police line during an anti-government demonstration in Minsk, Belarus, on Aug. 30, 2020.(AP Photo, File)
FILE - Protesters carry a man injured during clashes with police amid demonstrations in Minsk, Belarus, on Aug. 10, 2020. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Protesters shine the lights on their phones and wave red-and-white flags that became symbols of the opposition during an anti-government demonstration in Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus, on Aug. 19, 2020. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Protesters with old Belarusian national flags march at an opposition rally in Minsk, Belarus, on Sept. 6, 2020. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Nina Bahinskaya, 73, poses for a photo holding a flag that became the symbole of the opposition at an entrance of her apartment building in Minsk, Belarus, on Sept. 10, 2020. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks to schoolchildren at Independence Day celebrations in Minsk, Belarus, on July 3, 2020. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Belarusians in national costumes walk to the Berezina River in a ritual marking the summer solstice in the village of Parichi, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Minsk, Belarus, on July 6, 2022. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Ales Bialiatski, the head of the Viasna human rights group, sits in a defendants' cage at a court session in Minsk, Belarus, on Jan. 5, 2023. (Vitaly Pivovarchyk/BelTA Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Schoolchildren march during the traditional opening of the school year, known as the Day of Knowledge, in Minsk, Belarus, on Sept. 1, 2018. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Schoolchildren perform at a ceremony marking Belarus’ holiday honoring the state flag and emblem in Minsk, Belarus, on May 13, 2012. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Svetlana Alexievich, the 2015 Nobel literature laureate, center, and Pavel Latushko, former culture minister and ambassador to France, left, walk amid supporters and journalists on their way to the office of the Belarusian Investigative Committee in Minsk, Belarus, on Aug. 26, 2020. (AP Photo, File)