Vladimir Putin wished Alyaksandr Lukashenka a happy 67th birthday this week. In a telegram and phone call on August 30, the Kremlin leader stressed that the Belarusian dictator “can always count on Russia’s support.”
Russia’s support, of course, always comes with strings attached. And in this case, the price appears to be turning Belarus into an effective extension of Russia’s Western Military District.
Days before Putin sent Lukashenka his birthday greetings, the Belarusian Defense Ministry announced that Russian anti-aircraft missile troops had arrived in the Western city of Hrodna, near the border with Poland and Lithuania, to set up a joint military training center. Its purpose will be to train Belarusian crews of Russian Su-30SM fighter jets and anti-aircraft missile systems. The Belarusian Defense Ministry also announced that a shipment of Su-30SM fighter jets will arrive in Belarus on September 3.
The joint training center in Hrodna, which is effectively a military base, is one of three facilities the Russian and Belarusian defense ministers agreed to establish during talks in Moscow in March 2021. The other two will be located on Russian territory, in Nizhny Novgorod and Kaliningrad.