Alaxandr Milinkevich was born in 1947 in Hrodna. After graduating from the University of Hrodna, he passed his aspirantura at the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Science of Belarus. Between 1980 and 1984 he was in charge of the (then forming) Faculty of Physics at the University of Sétif in Algiers. He also served as a docent at the University of Hrodna between 1978 and 1980, and then from 1984 on to 1990. At that time he also started to cooperate with local city authorities as a chief of one of the committees. Soon he reached the rank of vice-mayor of the city.

In 2001 he was the chief of staff of Siamion Domaš, one of the opposition leaders running for president in the 2001 presidential elections of Belarus. In October of 2005 he was chosen by the United Democratic Forces of Belarus as the joint candidate of the opposition in the presidential elections of 2006.

Milinkevich compared his campaign to that of another pro-Western opposition candidate in neighboring Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, whose victory in late 2004 was dubbed the "Orange Revolution." Although disappointment in Yushchenko's government has culminated in political crisis in September of 2005 amid renewed allegations of mass graft coupled with a worsening economic situation, Milinkevich calls last year's events in Ukraine an inspiration for his supporters. "We believe that Belarus will be next after... Ukraine," he told The Associated Press.

In the Belarussian Presidential election of 2006, official regime results gave Milinkevich 6% of the vote against 83% for the incumbent Lukashenko, while an alleged leak by the Belarussian KGB has stated that he actually won 28% of the vote, against 49% for Lukashenko, which would mean that there should have been a national runoff election including Milinkevich as the opposition candidate. Official website: http://en.milinkevich.org/