Both the United States and the European Union have condemned elections held in Belarus at the weekend as flawed.
The White House has said it does not accept the results, which gave outgoing President Alexander Lukashenko over 80% of the vote.
The EU says it may impose sanctions.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, has said that he deplores the acts of intimidation during the campaign and Belarus's refusal to admit EU election observers.
However, in a sign of growing East-West tensions over election practices in former Soviet territories, Russia and a coalition of ex-Soviet states denounced Western pressure.
Moscow said the legitimacy of the poll was 'not in doubt' and President Vladimir Putin sent his congratulations.
In the wake of his landslide election victory, Mr Lukashenko has said the revolution against him has failed.
Mr Lukashenko described the election as free and fair and said despite external support, his opponents had failed to undermine public backing for his leadership.
He accused opposition candidates of slandering him during election campaigning and warned that they could face prison.
His challenger, Alexander Milinkevich, described the process as rigged and called it an unconstitutional seizure of power.
Thousands of protestors gathered in the Belarus capital, Minsk, hours after the polls closed yesterday evening.
They stood in heavy snow waving flags and placards in what was the largest demonstration in recent years.
