Expert: Belarus only pursues defensive policies

Russian President Vladimir Putin drew a line under the year 2024 at his big direct line event. Some of the questions he answered had to do with Russia’s nuclear doctrine. The Russian leader said his country will do everything to ensure Belarus’ security and reminded that a key component of the new doctrine is that it covers the Union State in its entirety. Aleksandr Osenko, the Director General of Stolichnoye TV JSC, explained to Alfa Radio what those statements should mean for our adversaries.

What was Putin’s message?

“Our adversaries should have heard everything earlier, when presidents of Belarus and Russia signed the Union State Security Concept and the bilateral treaty on security guarantees. What was the message? There will be a ‘red button’ in Belarus, you shouldn’t be surprised. This is the pattern for the Union State: its borders are defended by both countries. The fact that the Russian Federation deployed, at a request from our President, tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, is also telling. It’s far from fake news. As President Lukashenko said earlier, if someone didn’t see those weapons, it’s their problem,” the expert said.

They are real; there also will be Oreshnik missiles and other systems. So what their decision making centres should do is calculate the fly-in time. The closer they are to us, the worse for them. Putin even offered a weapons duel for those who still doubt us.

Provocations against Oreshnik

Mr. Osenko went on, “Some say there are no nuclear weapons in Belarus, and Oreshnik is an old system. That sounds like a provocation. They tried to provoke Russia with a strike on Taganrog, expecting them to use Oreshnik again. They got all their AD systems out, deployed their satellites, etc., to better study it. They don’t know what to expect from that system."

The West wants to see Oreshnik’s ballistic trajectory, that’s why they are provoking Moscow. Well, you can look at the impact site in Dnepropetrovsk, so let them go there and see for themselves.

Cooling some hot heads

“Those statements from Putin should cool some hot heads in the West once again, although they have a lot on their plate recently. They also could serve as a cold shower for Warsaw, because the tensions they are stoking at the Union State’s western border look a lot like preparations for a war,” continued the speaker.

Belarus’ defensive policies

As Mr. Osenko reminded everyone in conclusion, “It’s stated directly in our Constitution that Belarus does not consider any people our enemy. Our policies are strictly defensive, and the weapons that have been deployed on our territory, including tactical nuclear weapons, short and intermediate-range missiles, are only here for defending the Union State.”