Finance
Russia will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, according to reports in the media.
According to Russian state media, President Putin stated that the move would not violate nuclear non-proliferation treaties and compared it to the US stationing its weapons in Europe.
Moscow would not hand over control of its weapons to Minsk, he added, according to the BBC.
Following the announcement, the US stated that it did not believe Russia was planning to use nuclear weapons.
“We have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture,” the US Defense Department said in a statement.
“We remain committed to the collective defence of the Nato alliance.”
Belarus is a staunch Kremlin ally and supporter of the Ukrainian invasion.
According to the BBC, President Putin told Russian state television that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had long raised the issue of stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
“There is nothing unusual here either,” he said. “Firstly, the US has been doing this for decades. They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries.”
President Putin added that Russia will have completed the construction of a tactical nuclear weapons storage facility in Belarus by July 1.
According to the BBC, President Putin stated that a small number of Iskander tactical missile systems capable of launching nuclear weapons have already been transferred to Belarus.
He didn’t say when the weapons would be delivered to Belarus. It will be the first time Moscow has kept nuclear weapons outside the country since the mid-1990s.
Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, weapons were transferred to four newly independent states: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, with the transfer of all warheads to Russia completed in 1996.
Source:IANS
