Belarus: Russian nuclear deployment advances
At a May 25 meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Minsk, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin signed documents allowing Russian tactical nuclear weapons to be deployed on Belarusian territory. Shoigu and Khrenin cited a "sharp escalation of threats on the western border of Russia and Belarus." Meanwhile, at a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union in Moscow, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko implied to an interviewer that the nuclear weapons may "already" be stationed in Belarus.
A report on Russian state news agency TASS emphasizes that Moscow is to maintain command and control over the nuclear arms deployed in Belarus, but also states that "Belarusian missile crews and pilots have undergone training in Russia."
The European Union responded to the signing with a statement condemning the agreement, calling it "a step which will lead to further extremely dangerous escalation."
From Jurist, May 27. Used with permission.
See our last reports on the Belarus nuclear deployment, and ongoing Russian nuclear threats.
Lukashenko: 'Nuclear weapons for everyone'
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in a May 28 interview on Russian state TV offered nucear weapons to any nation willing to join the nascent Russia-Belarus Union State. "It's very simple. You have to join the union between Belarus and Russia, and that’s it: There will be nuclear weapons for everyone," Lukashenko said. (NBC News)
It should be noted that what he really means is Russian nuclear weapons deployed on the country's territory, as is now the case in Belarus.
Russian nuclear arms arrive in Belarus
Belarus has started taking the delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, President Alexander Lukashenko announced June 15, boasting that "the bombs are three times more powerful than those [dropped on] Hiroshima and Nagasaki" in 1945. (The Independent)