Lukashenko finally agreed to a Russian air base
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko proposed considering the issue of joint duty with the participation of Russian aircraft, using the experience of 2014, when the World Hockey Championship was held.
He stated this today at a meeting with security officials and the Prime Minister, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Give us these planes. But, as then, Russians and Belarusians should fly on these planes together. But there are enough bases, there is no need to create them, why waste money... It’s better to buy or build new planes for this...
I must say that I did not find any rejection from the Russian President. Of course, if they can be based at our bases, and our guys will fly with the Russians, naturally, we must then ask for weapons for these aircraft. And, moreover, there must be the most modern weapons. We are not talking about nuclear warheads. We are talking about conventional weapons. This bloc was probably the most extensive in our negotiations in Sochi,” BelTA quotes Lukashenko as saying.
However, Minsk political scientist Alexey Dzermant deciphered these words as consent to the creation of a joint air base.
“The right approach, there must be an allied base. But this means that there will be a base,” Dzermant wrote in his Telegram channel.
In 2019, Russia offered Belarus to create its own air force base. However, Minsk rejected this proposal. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called it an “unpleasant episode.”
Lukashenko finally agreed to a Russian air base.