Has Lukashenka’s Anti-NATO Gambit Paid Off with Putin?

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu recently invoked the NATO boogeyman as justification for closer military integration with Belarus. And that may be a sign that Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s gambit to go all in on Moscow’s conflict with the West has convinced the Kremlin to keep him around. Continue reading

The Guns of September

They’ve been called a pretext for mischief against the Baltics and Poland and a means for Russia to increase its military footprint in Belarus. But whatever you call them, the joint Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2021 military exercises that will begin next week seem to have everybody’s attention. Continue reading