 So a sort of potted history of Alexander Lukashenko. He was born in 1954 in what was then the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was one of 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union. He later served in the Soviet border troops and in the Soviet army. He joined the Soviet Communist Party and eventually became the director of a state farm in Shklov district. Now, two things about Shklov. One, it's the cucumber capital of Belarus.