A State Department official, briefing reporters on background on Jan. 18, threatened to overthrow the Belarusian government of President Alexander Lukashenko if Belarus allows Russian troops on its territory and/or participates in a supposed Russian invasion of Ukraine. The senior official didn’t come out and say “we will overthrow you,” but he used all of the code words associated with color revolution/regime change operations, in order to deliver an unmistakable message.
“We’ve seen warning signs that the dynamics inside Belarus are enabling Russia to further prey on Lukashenka’s [sic] self-inflicted vulnerability. The reports of Russian troop movements towards Belarus, which these movements are supposedly under the auspices of regularly scheduled joint military exercises, are concerning. The timing is notable, and of course raises concerns that Russia could intend to station troops in Belarus under the guise of joint military exercises in order, potentially, to attack Ukraine from the north,” he said, according to the State Department transcript of the briefing. “I believe Belarus’s complicity in such an attack would be completely unacceptable to Belarusians and to many inside the regime, as well as to us and our allies and partners. And we’ve made our concerns known to the Belarusian authorities privately.”
