Lukashenko will not break the agreement with Russia on the radar and communications center of the Navy, but he will bargain
Belarus will not break the agreement with Russia on the basing of a missile attack warning system node in Baranovichi (474th ORTU, Volga radar) and the Vileika radio station (43rd communications center of the Russian Navy).
If Minsk wanted to do this, it should have notified the Russian side a year before the agreements expired, that is, before June 6. Since Belarus did not take advantage of this procedure, the basing of Russian facilities will be prolonged.
Let us note that speculation about the non-extension of the agreements appeared not only in the opposition Belarusian press. At the end of May, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko publicly criticized military leaders for the fact that they are persuading him to extend the agreements, while Russia, according to Lukashenko, is not fulfilling its allied obligations.
Belarusian military expert Yegor Lebedok points out that the fundamental decision on Russian facilities was made back in October 2018, when Russia planned to deploy the Samarkand electronic warfare system at the Vileyka station.
“It is unlikely that the Russian Ministry of Defense would have completed work on the completion and installation of the Samarkand PU-PRD-D complex until 2019, without certain guarantees that in 2 years the entire communications center would not be closed,” Lebedok wrote on his Facebook. "
However, he does not exclude that the specific duration of the agreements, as well as their conditions, may be changed.
“The discussion of these conditions has been going on since December 2018 and, quite obviously, it is connected with negotiations on the so-called “deeper integration,” Lebedok wrote.
Agreements between the governments of Russia and Belarus on the use of the 43rd communications center of the Russian Navy “Vileika” and the Volga radar station, located just north of Gantsevichi, were concluded in 1995 and ratified in 1996. Both objects do not have the status of a military base and are guarded by Belarusian military personnel (or paramilitary guards). At the first, the maximum number of personnel is 1200 people (including civilians), at the second, 250.
The ultra-long-wave radio station in Vileika is used to provide communications in the North Atlantic and the North Sea, to communicate with deeply submerged submarines and surface ships, and to transmit combat control signals for the use of forces and equipment.
The long-range detection station for missile launches (Separate Radio Engineering Unit, ORTU) in the town of Gantsevichi (Brest Region) performs tasks to detect ballistic missiles, space objects and control over patrol areas of NATO submarines in the North Atlantic and the Norwegian Sea.
For the period of validity of the agreements, Russia provides free of charge military training grounds for conducting live firing by formations and air defense units of the Belarusian Armed Forces, information on the missile and space situation and assists in equipping control posts of the Belarusian air defense forces with the necessary equipment for this, provides information on the procedure for transmitting signals from the State Unified Time System and reference frequencies of Russia using the Vileika radio station.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.