jabberwalkie09 said:
rathAG05 said:
I'm curious as to the position of EU/NATO with Belarus joining in. I understand not wanting to engage directly with Russia, but what about actively stopping g Belarus? Why haven't we seen much active resistance to them mobilizing?
Belarus is part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization with Russia. The CSTO is headquartered in Moscow. Hit Belarus and you get The Bear as well.
Yep. I imagine at this point the EU is not distinguishing Belarus from Russia.
Things got sporty at home for Lukashenko last year and, pure conjecture here, I think he made a devil's bargain with Putin where Lukashenko gets a a lifetime interest in the Belarussian presidency, but Russia owns the country thereafter.
From watching Putin interviews, he talks about the "Union" when referring to the Soviet Union, and I think what he may be after is not so much outright annexation in the brutally simple form, but a true federation with Moscow as the imperial capital governing over tributary petty kingdoms e.g. Lukashenko in Belarus, Kadyrov in Chechnya, whatshisnuts in Kazakhstan, etc. etc.