Briefly:

• Lukashenko does not say precisely what weapons Russia has transferred to Belarus.

• According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, "it is not intended to physically equip Belarusian systems with nuclear warheads, nor to move such warheads to Belarusian territory."

• Moscow's threats to use nuclear weapons caused a negative reaction in the world.

• The Kremlin considered the transfer of nuclear weapons to Belarus risky.

On December 19, during a press conference on the occasion of Putin's visit, Lukashenka told how he and the Russian president would fight back against external enemies.

He said: "Today we put the S-400 complex, which you handed over to Belarus, on combat duty.

And, most importantly, the Iskander complex, which you also promised six months ago and handed over to us."

Lukashenko wanted to scare the West and at the same time show how cool he is in terms of military.

But on December 21, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Maria Zakharova, commented on these bellicose statements of Lukashenka to the publication "Kommersant".

It turns out that everything is a little wrong.

"At this stage, we are talking exclusively about the transfer to the Republic of Belarus of the Iskander-M dual-armament complexes with missiles in conventional equipment," Zakharova noted.

That is, the information that "we put the S-400 complex, which you handed over to Belarus, to combat duty today" does not correspond to reality?

This is how the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation can be understood.

And Lukashenko, to put it mildly, got a little angry.

The second point is even more interesting.

At the same press conference, Putin and Lukashenka noted that the SU-25 aircraft belonging to Belarus were reequipped at Russian factories, and now they can carry nuclear weapons.

The crews of these planes are also being trained.

It would seem that we should wait for the next step, the equipping of Belarusian planes with nuclear warheads.

Lukashenka repeatedly hinted at this.

And not only.

On June 25, during a meeting with Lukashenko in St. Petersburg, Putin confirmed that the Belarusian SU-25, as well as the "Iskander-M" complexes, which the Russian Federation is transferring to Belarus, can be equipped with nuclear weapons.

And in case of implementation of this idea, Belarus would de facto become a nuclear state.

But no.

Moscow turned back.

Although, it would seem, it was possible not to transfer nuclear warheads, but to hint at such a possibility.

And scare the West.

However, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Maria Zakharova, formulated Moscow's position very precisely.

According to her, there are no plans to transfer "technology for converting aircraft into nuclear weapons carriers" to Belarus.

Also, "it is not envisaged to physically equip Belarusian systems with nuclear warheads, nor to move such warheads to Belarusian territory", "the creation of facilities for the storage of nuclear warheads in Belarus is also not envisaged, they will continue to be concentrated in central warehouses within the territory of Russia." , and "the training of the Belarusian military will be carried out in Russian training centers according to programs that exclude the use of nuclear warheads."

The position is very clear.

It is formulated comprehensively and does not give grounds for any ambiguities.

And it means the end of the horror story used by Lukashenko.

The only question that arises is: why then re-equip Belarusian planes and carry out appropriate retraining of the crews of these planes?

Zakharova explains this position by Russia's obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

I think this is not the only problem.

The fact is that Moscow's threats to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine and the West had an appropriate reaction.

The USA explained to the Kremlin in some detail what they would expect in return.

Other, non-Western states, in particular China and India, perceived such a threat negatively.

And Moscow was forced to turn back a little.

By the way, the US, which keeps nuclear warheads in several foreign countries, never hands them over to these foreigners.

They reserve the right to use them exclusively.

Russia itself has a difficult experience of moving nuclear weapons to Russian territory from Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan after the collapse of the USSR.

The leaders of these young states (including Lukashenka) did not want to give it to the Russian Federation for a long time, argued stubbornly, and had to settle them with money.

Moscow assessed all the risks of transferring nuclear weapons to Belarus.

Because today Lukashenka is in power there, and what can happen tomorrow?

But Lukashenka is not very reliable.

Therefore, it is better to store such warheads away from sin "in central warehouses within the territory of Russia."

Thus, the nuclear scarecrow was taken away from Lukashenka.

The opinions expressed in the blogs represent the views of the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position.

• Valer Karbalevich

  He was born in 1955.

  Graduated from the history faculty of BSU, candidate of historical sciences, associate professor.

  Radio Svaboda political commentator.

  
  
  

  karbalevich@gmail.com

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