Putin signs security treaty with Belarus, including possible use of nuclear weapons!
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a treaty that provides security guarantees to Belarus, including the possible use of Russian nuclear weapons to help repel any aggression. The signing of the document during Putin's visit to Minsk follows the release of a revised version of Russia's nuclear doctrine, which for the first time placed Belarus under the Russian nuclear umbrella amid tensions between Moscow and the West over the war in Ukraine.
Speaking alongside Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Putin said the new document included the possible use of Russian tactical nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus in response to an aggression. "I am sure that the treaty will ensure the security of Russia and Belarus," Putin said in a televised speech. After the two leaders signed the security pact, Lukashenko urged Putin to deploy more advanced weapons to Belarus, including the new Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile that Russia first used last month in Ukraine.
"I would like to publicly ask you to deploy new weapons systems, mainly 'Oreshnik', in Belarus," Lukashenko said. "It will help clear some heads." Putin responded that the Oreshnik missiles could be deployed in Belarus in the second half of next year, adding that they would remain under Russian control but that Moscow would allow Belarus to choose the targets. The Russian president has described the November 21 Oreshnik attack in Ukraine as a response to Ukraine's attacks on Russian military facilities in the Bryansk and Kursk regions with Western-supplied weapons.
He has warned that Russia could use the new missile to hit military facilities of Kiev's Western allies that allow Ukraine to use their weapons for attacks on Russian territory. Putin has hailed the Oreshnik missile's capability, saying its multiple warheads, which dive into a target at 10 times the speed of sound, are immune to interception by any existing air defense system.
The head of Russia's missile forces said the missile, which can carry conventional or nuclear warheads, has a range that allows it to reach all of Europe. The renewed nuclear doctrine that Putin approved last month formally lowered the threshold for Russia to use its nuclear weapons, a move that follows US President Joe Biden's policy reversal to allow Ukraine to strike targets inside Russian territory with longer-range missiles. long supplied by America.
The doctrine states that Moscow may use nuclear weapons "in response to the use of nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction" against Russia or its allies, as well as "in the event of aggression" against Russia and Belarus with conventional weapons that threaten their "sovereignty and/or territorial integrity".
Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly said that Russian tactical nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus remain under Moscow's control, but Belarus' Security Council secretary Alexander Volfovich said on Friday that their use would require Lukashenko's sanction. Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for more than 30 years and has relied on Russian subsidies and support, allowed Russia to use his country's territory to send troops to Ukraine in February 2022 and deploy some of its weapons nuclear tactics in Belarus.
Belarus' exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya condemned the security pact between Russia and Belarus as part of Moscow's efforts to tighten its grip on the country. "Putin's visit to Minsk is not about security, it is about strengthening Russia's control over our country," she said. "Distributing new weapons and using Belarus as a pawn in his imperial ambitions threatens us all."
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