Belarusian opposition: “Lukashenko is playing with fire, proposing to deploy Russian nuclear weapons”
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko is closely monitoring the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in order to use it to his advantage.
Belarusian political observer Artem Shraibman, who fled to Kyiv, said this today on the air of the liberal radio station “Echo of Moscow,” the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I think they are watching very closely. They have always used the escalation between Russia and the West to their advantage. This was room for maneuver for Lukashenko. He perceived this as an opportunity to signal to the West that “we are not Russia.” “We put forward peacekeeping initiatives, we conduct transparent exercises, we do not recognize Crimea.” This was an opportunity to shine against the backdrop of “aggressive Russia.”
Now everything has changed exactly the opposite. Now Lukashenko’s addressee is Moscow. And he is using escalation to show Putin: you have no better ally than me. Pay accordingly. This is an attempt to fight off unpleasant concessions like integration and privatization of Belarusian state property by demonstrating entrenched loyalty. And this is playing with fire.
Lukashenko said, as if jokingly, bluffing: “let’s deploy nuclear weapons.” Just like that – we’ll scare Poland. What if Russia says: “let’s do it”? As practice shows, it is easier to place Russian weapons than to remove them later. This play with fire at the moment of escalation creates very serious risks for the Belarusian military autonomy,” Shreibman fears.
In November, in an interview with RIA Novosti, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that he would offer Russia to place nuclear weapons on the territory of his country if the United States transferred its nuclear weapons from Germany to Poland. In December, this thesis was confirmed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Vladimir Makei.
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