{"id":11351,"date":"2022-02-17T03:54:50","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T00:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/lukasenka-may-shelve-syria-deployment-agreement\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"lukasenka-may-shelve-syria-deployment-agreement","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11351\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka\u0161enka may shelve Syria deployment agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Aliaksandr Aliesin<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>Despite the strong military ties, Minsk and Moscow have differences over defense matters from time to time. The Belarusian leader bristled at Russian reports that Moscow had approved a draft agreement on the deployment of Belarusian military personnel to Syria.<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t By publishing details of the draft agreement, Russian media disclosed Minsk\u2019s plan to send up to 200 humanitarian personnel to Russia\u2019s Khmeimin airbase in Syria. The contingent would be accountable to the local Russian military command but remain under the Belarusian command. The Russians would provide it with food, accommodation, weapons, equipment and ammunition, according to the draft accord.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Mission unclear<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The Belarusian leader must have been surprised that the Russians disclosed details of the draft accord. Addressing the Belarusian public in March 2019, he had said that he would never discuss a Syria deployment \u201cbehind your back.\u201d Recent Russian media reports suggest that he had held secret talks with Damask and Moscow to send up to 200 humanitarian personnel to an area outside \u201cthe battle zone.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Russia\u2019s decision to make the draft public came as a surprise to Luka\u0161enka and has cast him in an unfavorable light in the run up to Belarus\u2019 constitutional referendum scheduled for February 27. The arrangement drew criticism from Israeli and Arabic media.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Belarusian leader on February 8 dismissed the reports as fake news. At a Security Council meeting in Minsk, he admitted that the Syrian government had asked Minsk to send doctors to Syria.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka added that Belarus would not send any doctors to Syria during the COVID-19 pandemic but noted that he might approve a deployment later. He said he had discussed the matter with the Russian government.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Some observers speculated that Russia expected Luka\u0161enka to send a peacekeeping company (a company is usually about 200 personnel) to Syria, not only doctors.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Who might be interested in the leak?<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The draft accord was leaked to the media weeks before the constitutional referendum in Belarus. In a similar fashion, Moscow had published Vladimir Putin\u2019s order authorizing officials to sign an agreement on the establishment of a Russian airbase in Belarus shortly before Belarus\u2019 2015 presidential election. Angered by the disclosure, Luka\u0161enka put the airbase negotiations on hold.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Moscow may find it convenient to share responsibility for its operations in Syria with Belarus. The draft might have been published on the initiative of Luka\u0161enka\u2019s foes in Russia or members of that country\u2019s military elite seeking to draw Belarus into Russia\u2019s military gambles.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t But no matter how dependent on Moscow Luka\u0161enka might be after his 2020 disputed re-election, he may now shelve the Syria deployment accord because he does not want to be perceived as the Kremlin\u2019s puppet.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Aliaksandr Aliesin Despite the strong military ties, Minsk and Moscow have differences over defense matters from time to time. The Belarusian leader bristled at Russian reports that Moscow had approved a draft agreement on the deployment of Belarusian military personnel to Syria. By publishing details of the draft agreement, Russian media disclosed Minsk\u2019s plan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[24],"class_list":["post-11351","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Luka\u0161enka may shelve Syria deployment agreement | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Aliaksandr Aliesin Despite the strong military ties, Minsk and Moscow have differences over defense matters from time to time. 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