Is Belarus still an autonomous country? According to NATO, the Russian army has deployed 30,000 soldiers there, officially as part of military exercises. The “Allied Resolution” maneuvers from February 10 to 20 are on a scale unprecedented for thirty years. It’s not just about threatening Ukraine with semi-encirclement from the north. The deployed Iskander missiles have a range of 400 kilometers and threaten much of Europe. The sustainability on Belarusian soil of “offensive” and unconventional weapons was also one of the concerns expressed by Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Moscow on February 7.
Vladimir Putin replied that he would withdraw his troops. But the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko no longer hesitates to say that his army is an extension of the Russian army and that the dream of the head of the Kremlin to reconstitute the USSR suits him very well. “Putin promised to give me the rank of colonel in the Russian army,” he said on a Russian propaganda YouTube channel.
pending a possible invasion, Putin absorbs
