Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko revealed during a speech to youth leaders in Minsk on 17 September that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin regularly joke and argue over which of them qualifies as the ultimate dictator. This disclosure underscores the close political alignment between Belarus and Russia, as Lukashenko remains Europe's longest-serving head of state and Putin's closest international ally.

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus uninterrupted since 1994, whilst Putin has led Russia since 2012 (previously serving as president from 2000 to 2008). Although Belarus has not committed ground troops to Russia's war in Ukraine, the country serves as a strategic staging ground, providing Russia with weapons components and allowing it to launch military strikes from Belarusian territory. At the same youth forum, Lukashenko addressed political succession, claiming no successor is yet ready to assume power. Meanwhile, despite sustained Western economic sanctions over human rights concerns, Belarus announced in September that it has begun exporting potash to the United States.