Moscow and Minsk: always friends, never enemies. A few hours ago, Putin and Lukashenko signed an agreement formalizing the deployment ofRussian tactical nuclear missiles on Belarusian territory. The reason? Russia said the move came because of growing tensions with the West.
The arms transfer to Belarus could be read as a reaction to the West’s delivery of F16s to Ukraine. A sad parallel toCold War.
“Russia’s alleged stationing of nuclear weapons in Belarus is another attempt at a nuclear threat,” government spokesman Olaf Scholz said in Berlin when asked about Lukashenko’s announcement. For the spokesman, “this transfer is a wrong step”.