Alexander Voitovich
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Alexander Pavlovich Voitovich (also transliterated as Aleksandr Voitovich; born 5 January 1938) is a Belarusian politician, physicist, and activist. He served as Speaker of the Council of the Republic from 2000 to 2003 and President of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus from 1997 to 2001.
Voitovich was born in Rachkevichi, which is part of the Kapyl district, in the Byelorussian SSR. He attended the Institute of Physics at the Belarusian State University, graduating in 1978 with a Doctor of Sciences. Afterwards, he continued in the physics field, primarily covering gas lasers and spectroscopy. In May 1997 he was elected President of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences, a position he stayed at until 2001. During his time as president, he helped expand scientific cooperation with state administration and NAS, helped strengthen the international position of NAS, and helped with better organization during a difficult time for the academy because of economic circumstances. In December 2000, upon President Alexander Lukashenko's suggestion Voitovich was appointed Speaker of the Council of the Republic of the second convocation. In this role he met with numerous foreign allies and international organizations, including the IMF and China. However, in 2003, he was suddenly terminated by presidential decree from Lukashenko for declaring a minute of silence in memory of dissident Vasil Bykov. This led him to immediately become part of the Belarusian opposition and an activist.
As part of the opposition, he notably ran as a candidate for the 2006 Belarusian presidential election. Declaring that there was not equal access in the elections and rigged, he also attacked Lukashenko numerous times for running for a third term when the limit was two. Eventually, he withdrew from the elections, and wrote a letter to Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky asking him to step up, which he did not do. Since the elections, he has led a small laboratory for laser spectroscopy and has been a continuous voice of opposition, comparing the current regime to Nazis and having policies similar to that of Joseph Stalin.
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