{"id":11440,"date":"2022-06-29T17:45:22","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T14:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/lukasenka-putin-wielding-nuclear-stick\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"lukasenka-putin-wielding-nuclear-stick","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11440\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0141uka\u0161enka, Putin wielding nuclear stick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Valeryj Karbalevi\u010d<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t * Reproduction prohibited\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Last week\u2019s urgent talks between Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka and Vladimir Putin appeared to be linked to tension between Moscow and Vilnius.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Mysterious meeting<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The two leaders have met frequently in the last few months because both need mental support amid international isolation. Putin in particular needed mental therapy after a snub from Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka and Putin initially planned to meet in Hrodna on June 30 or July 1, during a forum of Belarusian and Russian regions, but the talks were brought forward to June 25 and took place in Saint Petersburg, Russia.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Belarusian leader spent several days in the city. He was supposed to hold informal talks with Putin on June 23 and 24. It is unclear whether those informal discussions took place. Pul Pervogo, a Telegram channel linked to \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s press office, reported that the two men had informal talks at the Zavidovo residence. Russia has not confirmed it.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t On June 24, Russian warplanes flew to Belarus to launch massive missile strikes at facilities in Ukraine\u2019s Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions. In terms of military tactics or strategy, the operation did not make much sense. It might be an attempt by Moscow to put some pressure on \u0141uka\u0161enka by compromising his statements on Belarus\u2019 non-involvement in the conflict.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Tension between Moscow and Vilnius<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t As for the talks, the urgency might have something to do with tension between Russia and Lithuania after Vilnius moved to restrict Russian transits to its Kalinigrad exclave. The Kremlin promised a harsh response but could not deliver without help from Belarus.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Any military response, for instance an attempt to capture the Suwalki gap linking the exclave to Russia, would be impossible without using Belarus\u2019 territory because an attack from the Kaliningrad region alone might not be as effective as squeezing the corridor from two directions.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Lithuanian-Russian tension gave a boost to Belarus as a key geopolitical and military player, but it has also increased the risk that the country\u2019s armed forces can be drawn into a major clash between Russia and NATO.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t For the time being, Moscow has limited its response to oral nuclear threats. The Saint-Petersburg meeting was a well-choreographed show, in which \u0141uka\u0161enka employed aggressive anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian rhetoric and complained to Putin about NATO and U.S. planes allegedly training to \u201ccarry nuclear warheads.\u201d He called on the Russian president to equip his army for \u201ca mirror response.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Although Putin noted that there was no need for a mirror response, he promised to send nuclear-capable missile systems, the Iskander-M, to Belarus in the next few months.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Nuclear blackmail<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t It was the first time the Russian president actually threatened to deploy nuclear weapons to Belarus. Only \u0141uka\u0161enka issued such threats before.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t If the statements by the two leaders are taken literally, Belarus might potentially become a nuclear state in violation on the non-proliferation treaty.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Moscow may be long on ambition and short on accomplishment. The Kremlin will think twice before giving \u0141uka\u0161enka nuclear weapons. If it eventually sends nuclear-tipped missiles to Belarus, Moscow will to its best to make sure it controls the weapons.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t It is clear why \u0141uka\u0161enka was so enthusiastic about the idea. He has long sought to take possession of nuclear weapons to blackmail the West. He had attempted to use migrants before.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Belarusian ruler would be happy even if Russia delivered Iskander-M missile systems without nuclear warheads. After all, he had approached Moscow to equip the Belarusian Armed Forced with state-of-the-art systems.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Moscow and Minsk have taken another step to drive up military tension in a bid to scare the West.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Valeryj Karbalevi\u010d * Reproduction prohibited Last week\u2019s urgent talks between Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka and Vladimir Putin appeared to be linked to tension between Moscow and Vilnius. Mysterious meeting The two leaders have met frequently in the last few months because both need mental support amid international isolation. Putin in particular needed mental therapy after a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11440","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>\u0141uka\u0161enka, Putin wielding nuclear stick | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Valeryj Karbalevi\u010d * Reproduction prohibited Last week\u2019s urgent talks between Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka and Vladimir Putin appeared to be linked to tension\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11440\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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