Europe’s longest-serving leader won re-election in a contest widely believe to have been rigged. The result cements the power of a leader whose country is considered Russia’s staunchest ally.

Belarusian leader and Russian ally Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule on Monday after electoral officials declared him the winner of a presidential election that Western governments rejected as a sham.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has extended his more than three decades in power in an orchestrated weekend election that the opposition and the European Union rejected as a farce.