In 1988, he graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of the Belarusian State University, in 1995 – the Academy of Public Administration under the aegis of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.
On 12 May 2020, he voluntarily resigned as chairman of the management board of Belgazprombank and declared his intention to participate in the 2020 Belarusian presidential election.
[9] In 2018, on the initiative of Babaryka, Belgazprombank financed the publication of 15,000 copies of Svetlana Alexievich's five-volume edition and donated them to Belarusian libraries.
With the support of Viktar Babaryka, the original of Francysk Skaryna's Bible, as well as the paintings of Marc Chagall, Chaïm Soutine and Léon Bakst were returned to Belarus.
[12] The candidacy of Babaryka was publicly supported by Belarusian cultural figures including Nobel Prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich and director Andrej Kurejchyk.
On 17 June, philosopher Uladzimir Matskevich (previously supporting the boycott of the election) left his signature to endorse Babaryka's running for presidency as a sign of solidarity with all the people who were persecuted during the election campaign and to encourage the opponents of Alexander Lukashenko's regime to unite around Babaryka, who had become the de facto leader of the Belarusian opposition.
According to Belarusian legislation, in order to be registered as a presidential candidate, a person has to submit 100,000 signatures in his/her support – the initiative group gathered the needed amount by 6 June.
On 20 June, Babaryka's team submitted the whole package of documents, including the needed number of signatures, to the Central Election Commission of Belarus.
A number of political scientists believe that, by doing so, the Chairperson of the Central Election Commission of Belarus deliberately violated the Constitution under the direction of incumbent President Lukashenko.
[19][20] At the same time, unknown persons in civilian clothes and masks entered the house of Babarika's headquarters leader and member of the presidium of the Coordination Council of the opposition Maria Kalesnikava in the center of Minsk.
Babaryka himself maintained that the investigation had no actual compromising materials and that the criminal case had purely political implications – this statement was indirectly confirmed by Alexander Lukashenko who said that "he had commissioned the State Control Committee to inspect the activities of Belgazprombank".
According to the key charges, over a couple of years Belgazprombank had transferred more than 430 million dollars from its account to Latvia, and Viktar Babaryka was the "mastermind behind the crime".
On 10 October 2020, Lukashenko spoke with the imprisoned Babaryka, his son Eduard, and fellow candidate Sergei Tikhanovsky in a four-hour meeting concerning changes to the Constitution.
Babaryka's election campaign coordinator Yuriy Voskresensky was subsequently released and spoke against public protests on state television.
On the first day of the trial, his attorney Dzmitry Layeuski requested house arrest for the defendant, and to have him tried by a lower level court.
[32] On the night of 24 and 25 April 2023, Babaryka was, according to worker's rights group Rabočy Ruch, subjected to beating by prison security and subsequently transported to the surgical department of the Novopolotsk hospital three days later.
[37] According to unofficial Internet polls, at least half of respondents were ready to support Babaryka in the upcoming presidential election over incumbent Alexander Lukashenko (assuming his candidacy would be allowed).