{"id":11579,"date":"2023-06-19T13:54:24","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T10:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/belarusian-leader-claims-to-have-say-counters-perception-of-himself-as-putins-vassal\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"belarusian-leader-claims-to-have-say-counters-perception-of-himself-as-putins-vassal","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11579\/","title":{"rendered":"Belarusian leader claims to have say, counters perception of himself as Putin\u2019s vassal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Valeryj Karbalevi\u010d<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t On his return to Minsk from his Russia trip last week, Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka immediately issued nuclear threats to amplify Moscow\u2019s rhetoric.\n<\/p>\n<h2>Comments on nuclear arsenal<\/h2>\n<p>\n\t &#8220;We have missiles and bombs from Russia,&#8221; the Belarusian ruler told <span>Rossiya 1<\/span>. &#8220;A bomb three times as powerful as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than 80,000 died instantly there; 250,000 [dead] from one strike. And this single bomb is three times as powerful. I don\u2019t know, up to million people would die instantly.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka said that he would launch a nuclear strike to punish the West for its failure to comply with hypothetical peace agreements. \u201cI believe that we must use nuclear weapons. This is the only way to talk to them. We must not conduct dialogue with them and believe them. They will cheat us,\u201d he said, warning the West against driving Russian President Vladimir Putin into the corner.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Meanwhile, many observers say that by deploying nuclear weapons, Russia uses Belarus for its geopolitical ends to raise the stakes in its war against Ukraine and the West. Most observers agreed that the Kremlin would use the nuclear arsenal as tool to control its ally, while \u0141uka\u0161enka would not be able to make independent decisions on military matters.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t It should be noted that the Belarusian leader approved possible nuclear deployment despite opposition from 75 percent to 80 percent of voters in Belarus, according to surveys by non-governmental think tanks.\n<\/p>\n<h2>\u0141uka\u0161enka says he needs nukes to fight off aggressor<\/h2>\n<p>\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka claimed that he had forced Putin to station nuclear weapons in Belarus: \u201cIt was my demand. Russia has not imposed it on me . . . I asked Putin first. Later, I demanded in a friendly way \u2013 give me those weapons back for a while.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He said that Belarus had already built the storage facility and that nuclear weapons were intended to deter potential aggressors. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone will want to go to war with a country that has such nuclear weapons.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He also made it clear that he sees the Kastu\u015b Kalino\u016dski Regiment, a military unit formed of Belarusian fighters in Ukraine, as a potential aggressor.\n<\/p>\n<h2>\u0141uka\u0161enka claims to have a say<\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The Belarusian leader claimed that he has a say on the use of nuclear weapons.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cGod forbid, I will have to make a decision to use these weapons in our contemporary time. I will not hesitate, but only if we face aggression,\u201d he said in one interview.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In the abovementioned interview with <span>Rossiaya 1<\/span>, he admitted that he would need Putin\u2019s approval for a nuclear strike, but made it clear that it is a mere formality.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu repeatedly said that Belarus would not control the weapons, so the deployment would not contravene any non-proliferation commitments.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In his recent interviews, \u0141uka\u0161enka cast himself as a big man who makes all important decisions, portraying Russia as a secondary partner in the alliance.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t His attempts to emphasize his role at Putin\u2019s expense may be an unwitting and instinctive response to the widely-held perception of him as Russia\u2019s vassal.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Valeryj Karbalevi\u010d On his return to Minsk from his Russia trip last week, Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka immediately issued nuclear threats to amplify Moscow\u2019s rhetoric. Comments on nuclear arsenal &#8220;We have missiles and bombs from Russia,&#8221; the Belarusian ruler told Rossiya 1. &#8220;A bomb three times as powerful as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than 80,000 died [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[24],"class_list":["post-11579","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Belarusian leader claims to have say, counters perception of himself as Putin\u2019s vassal | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Valeryj Karbalevi\u010d On his return to Minsk from his Russia trip last week, Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka immediately issued nuclear threats to amplify Moscow\u2019s\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11579\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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