Belarus receiving Russian tactical nuclear weapons: A purported act of intimidation towards NATO nations

Russia is going to place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. President Putin made this known in an interview broadcast on state television. The president points out that the Kremlin retains control of nuclear weapons.

Putin says the placement of the nuclear weapons does not violate international anti-nuclear weapons treaties because the United States also has nuclear weapons stationed in Europe. “Nothing strange is happening here,” Putin said. “The United States has been doing this for decades. They’ve had tactical nuclear weapons stationed in their allies’ territory for a long time.”

According to Putin, Belarusian President Lukashenko has long been asking for nuclear weapons as a deterrent to NATO. The construction of a storage location will be completed on July 1, Putin said. It is not clear where in Belarus the nuclear weapons are placed. According to Putin, ten aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons are already stationed in the country. Iskander missile systems have also been sent to Belarus that can be used to launch nuclear weapons, Putin said.

The Russian president spoke about nuclear weapons for Belarus in an interview broadcast on Belarusian TV:

It is not known when the tactical nuclear weapons will be transferred to Belarus. Tactical nuclear weapons contain a smaller nuclear payload than ‘traditional’ nuclear weapons. They can be used for battlefield targets and do much more damage than conventional weapons. The US government estimates that Russia has about 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons.

In total, Russia has nearly 6,000 nuclear warheads. That’s more than the 5,400 owned by the United States. US nuclear weapons are also stored in Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

According to the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute), China has 350 warheads, France 290 and the United Kingdom 225. Pakistan (165), India (160), Israel (90) and North Korea (20) also possess nuclear weapons.

The deployment of the nuclear weapons is possible thanks to a constitutional amendment that was implemented in Belarus last year. In that new constitution, a passage was deleted stating that Belarus strives for neutrality and a nuclear-weapon-free world.

“This is part of Putin’s game of trying to intimidate NATO,” Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists told Reuters news agency. “It makes no military sense to station those weapons in Belarus, since Russia already has so many of these weapons in its own country.” Nikolai Skol of the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation does call it a major step. “Russia has always prided itself on not having nuclear weapons outside its own territory. They are changing that now, and that is a big change.”

Incidentally, there are probably already Russian nuclear weapons in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which lies between NATO member states Lithuania and Poland. Lithuanian Defense Minister Anusauskas said last year that nuclear weapons are there, but Russia has never confirmed that.

It is the first nuclear weapon in Belarus since 1992. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, nuclear weapons were stationed in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. A year later, the four countries decided that only Russia should have access to nuclear weapons. By 1996, all nuclear weapons had been transferred to Russian territory.

Authoritarian Belarus is one of Russia’s staunchest allies. The country’s army regularly trains with the Russian army. The opposition in Belarus said late last year that it feared annexation by the Russians.

Belarusian opposition leader Tikhanovskaya says the deal between Putin and Lukashenko underlines once again that Lukashenko’s regime is a threat to regional security. “Europe will not be safe until the Belarusian dictator is deposed and brought before a tribunal,” she said on Twitter. Remarkable: precisely today is Freedom Day for the opposition, which commemorates the fact that Belarus declared itself independent from Russia in 1918. The government does not recognize that day.