Is Russia on the verge of adopting another US nuclear weapons policy? After saying on Dec. 9 that Russia might consider adopting the US “theory” of the preventive strike, Putin said in Minsk yesterday that Russia will undertake the training of Belarusian pilots to deliver Russian nuclear weapons. “I consider it possible to continue the implementation of the Belarusian President’s proposal on the training of Belarusian combat planes that have already been refurbished for potential use of air-based ammunition with a special payload,” he said, reported TASS.
“I want to stress that this form of cooperation is not our invention,” Putin said. “The US, for example, has been carrying out similar measures with their NATO allies for decades,” he added, referring to NATO’s nuclear sharing program. According to the Russian leader, “such coordinated measures are exceptionally important due to the tense situation on the external border of the Union State,” that is, of Belarus and Russia.
In June, TASS explains, Belarusian Alexander Lukashenko offered Putin to take symmetrical military measures in response to Western actions, asking Russia to help upgrade Belarusian military planes to make them capable of carrying nuclear warheads. In August, Lukashenko told reporters that “everything is ready.”
Yesterday, Lukashenko responded to Putin by saying: “You’ve touched upon the issue […] of training our crews that can carry special weapons and special ammunition. I must say that we have prepared the planes. As it turned out, we had such planes since the Soviet times, we’ve tested them in the Russian Federation. Together with the Russians, we train crews that can pilot planes that carry these specific payloads.”
According to Lukashenko, “this is not a threat to anyone.” He noted that he had said earlier that Minsk has “big concerns” over the tensions on the perimeter of the Union State, primarily on the western border. “We should secure the Belarusian state. You have made a very decisive and important step in supporting Belarus,” Lukashenko told Putin.
No mention was made in their public remarks of the transfer of Russian nuclear weapons to Belarusian custody for possible delivery by Belarusian forces, but such arrangements are part of the NATO program as well.
