Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Belarus on Thursday for a two-day visit as part of several foreign tours to begin his fifth term, underscoring close ties with a neighboring ally that has been instrumental in Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Putin traveled to China earlier this month and is expected to arrive in Uzbekistan on Sunday. Earlier on Thursday, the Russian president received Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa at the Kremlin.
In Belarus, Putin will hold talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko greeted him on the tarmac and then the two sat down for a “brief conversation” at the airport, the Kremlin reported. Lukashenko promised to discuss “security issues at the forefront, and tomorrow we will discuss economic issues together with our government colleagues.”
The Belarusian leader on Thursday named a new chief of the country’s military staff in a move that analysts say is aimed at showing the Kremlin the utmost loyalty of its neighbor and ally.
Russia used Belarus, which depends on Russian loans and cheap energy, as a theater of war in Ukraine, deploying some of its troops there from Belarusian territory. In 2023, Russia also moved some of its tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
Major General Pavel Muraveyka, who was appointed chief of the Belarusian General Staff and first deputy defense minister, is known for publicly threatening neighboring NATO members Poland and Lithuania.
In October 2023, he said Belarus could seize the so-called Suwalki Gap, a sparsely populated strip of land that stretches about 100 kilometers (60 miles) along the Polish-Lithuanian border. It links Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to the rest of the NATO alliance and separates Belarus from Kaliningrad, a heavily militarized Russian enclave in the Baltic Sea that has no land connection to Russia.
Military analysts in the West have long viewed the Suwalki Gap as a potential flashpoint in any confrontation between Russia and NATO. They are concerned that Russia will try to exploit the gap and isolate the three Baltic states from Poland and other NATO nations.
“Muraveiko’s appointment is an open challenge to the West and a desire to show Putin Minsk’s full loyalty and willingness to maintain a strategic partnership with Russia,” independent Belarusian analyst Valery Karbalevich told The Associated Press.
“The deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus does not leave Lukashenko with a strategic choice, makes him a hostage of the Kremlin and firmly ties Minsk to Moscow’s policies,” Karbalevich said.
Both Russia and Belarus began military exercises using tactical nuclear weapons earlier this month. Moscow said its exercises, first publicly announced on May 6, were a response to statements by Western officials signaling possible deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine. Belarus launched its exercises with missiles and fighter jets capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons on May 7; Russia’s exercises began this week.
Moscow has emphasized that tactical nuclear weapons deployed in Belarus remain under Russian military control.
Unlike intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads that can destroy entire cities, tactical nuclear weapons intended to be used against troops on the battlefield are less powerful. Those weapons include aerial bombs, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery munitions.
Deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which has a 1,084-kilometer (673-mile) border with Ukraine, would allow Russian aircraft and missiles to hit potential targets there more easily and quickly if Moscow decides to use them. It also expands Russia’s ability to attack several NATO allies in central and eastern Europe.
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