Belarus president offers to host Russian nuclear weapons

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

MOSCOW (AP) — The longtime president of Belarus said Tuesday that his state would beryllium acceptable to big Russian atomic weapons if NATO moves U.S. atomic bombs from Germany to Eastern Europe.

In an interview, President Alexander Lukashenko besides said for the archetypal clip that helium recognizes the Crimean Peninsula arsenic portion of Russia and plans to sojourn it soon. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine successful 2014, a determination that the West regards arsenic illegal.

Lukashenko made the remarks arsenic helium moves to cement ties with Russia, his main state and sponsor, amid tensions with the West implicit his disputed reelection past twelvemonth and his government’s brutal crackdown connected dissent successful Belarus.

Asked astir the imaginable redeployment of U.S. atomic bombs to Eastern Europe if Germany’s caller authorities were nary longer consenting to location the weapons, Lukashenko responded that helium would invitation Russian President Vladimir Putin to nonstop atomic weapons that were withdrawn aft the 1991 Soviet illness backmost to Belarus.

“I would connection Putin to instrumentality atomic weapons to Belarus,” Lukashenko said successful the interrogation with Dmitry Kiselyov, the caput of Russian authorities media radical Rossiya Segodnya.

The Belarusian person wouldn’t elaborate connected what benignant of weapons Belarus would beryllium consenting to accommodate. He added that Belarus has cautiously preserved the indispensable subject infrastructure dating backmost to the Soviet era.

Opposition person Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who near Belarus nether unit aft unsuccessfully trying to unseat Lukashenko successful past year’s election, denounced the president’s comments.

“Such a idiosyncratic shouldn’t beryllium trusted to grip matches, fto unsocial atomic weapons,” she told The Associated Press.

Tsikhanouskaya said the deployment of Russian atomic weapons to Belarus would interruption planetary arms agreements and the volition of Belarus’ people. “The bulk of Belarusians person spoken for Belarus’ neutrality,” she said.

Speaking earlier this month, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the Western subject confederation would request to ponder redeploying atomic weapons eastbound if the caller German authorities changes the country’s argumentation connected atomic sharing.

“Germany can, of course, determine whether determination volition beryllium atomic weapons successful your country, but the alternate is that we easy extremity up with atomic weapons successful different countries successful Europe, besides to the eastbound of Germany,” Stoltenberg said.

Alexei Arbatov, a Moscow-based overseas argumentation expert, described the imaginable redeployment of U.S. atomic bombs to Eastern Europe arsenic a “mad, adventurist move.” If Moscow responds by sending its atomic weapons to Belarus, “the concern would beryllium much unsafe than it was during the Cold War times,” the Interfax quality bureau quoted Arbatov arsenic saying.

Lukashenko has edged person to Russia since helium faced Western unit aft being awarded a sixth word successful an August 2020 ballot that the absorption and the West accidental was rigged. Belarusian authorities responded to protests triggered by the predetermination with a sweeping crackdown, prompting the European Union and the United States to slap Belarus with respective rounds of sanctions.

Tensions person escalated further since the summertime implicit the accomplishment of thousands of migrants and refugees connected Belarus’ borderline with EU subordinate Poland. The EU has accused Lukashenko of retaliating for its sanctions by utilizing hopeless asylum-seekers arsenic pawns and tricking them into trying to participate Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to destabilize the full EU.

Russia and Belarus person a national statement that envisages adjacent political, economical and subject ties, but Lukashenko successful the past has sought to maneuver betwixt Moscow and the West, trying to triumph concessions from each party.

And adjacent though helium relied connected inexpensive vigor and loans provided by Russia, helium refrained from recognizing Moscow’s annexation of Crimea until Tuesday. In Tuesday’s interview, helium said helium considers Crimea portion of Russia some de facto and de jure. Lukashenko added that helium planned to sojourn Crimea connected Putin’s invitation.

“If the president comes determination with the president of Russia, what different signifier of designation could determination be?” helium said.

Ukrainian and Western authorities person raised interest successful caller days astir alleged Kremlin plans to invade Ukraine. Lukashenko warned that his state would basal squarely down Russia if the Ukrainian authorities launched an violative against Moscow-backed rebels successful eastbound Ukraine.

Belarusian governmental expert Valery Karbalevich said Lukashenko’s connection came arsenic a payoff for Moscow’s backing.

“Lukashenko efficaciously pays Putin for the enactment that the Kremlin has offered to him astatine the clip erstwhile helium was connected the verge of governmental decease aft the election,” Karbalevich told the AP. “Lukashenko has go a instrumentality for the Kremlin and helium expects much Russian subsidies and fiscal assistance successful return.”

He noted that successful the look of Western sanctions against the Belarusian economy, Lukashenko is present “ready to deploy atomic weapons, signifier a situation with migrants and get progressive successful a confrontation with Ukraine.”

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Yuras Karmanau successful Kyiv, Ukraine contributed to this report.

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