Keep Your Eyes on Lukashenko
As the summer of 2023 continues, with a very fluid and potentially dangerous situation evolving in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, here’s a man you should know and keep your eyes on:
His name is Alexander Lukashenko.
Lukashenko is the Belarusian buddy of Vladimir Putin. You may have heard his name in the news recently as he tried to broker a deal between Putin and the head of the Wagner Group that recently started an insurrection against Putin.
Lukashenko has held the presidency of Belarus, a former Soviet republic, since the office was established after the breakup of the USSR. He took the helm in July 1994, making him the longest-serving leader in Europe. That’s even longer than Putin has held the sword at the Kremlin. Putin took over in the year 2000.
In a November 2012 interview with Reuters, Lukashenko actually referred to himself as “the last dictator in Europe.”
So he is, and he said that over 10 years ago.
How, well, Soviet-like. Could it be any other way for this politician who rose through the ranks of Komsomol (the Soviet Young Communist League), a collectivist farm, and the Red Army, where he was a “political officer?”
Lukie was a good commie. And now, he’s Putin’s pal. Together, they have blown past elections in their respective countries, ensconced themselves as authoritarians, and now have forged a united front against the Ukraine. More than that, the latest, quite alarmingly, is their coming together on Russian nukes.
At 6’2 and over 200 pounds, Lukashenko might dominate Putin in pictures, with little Vlad almost looking like his puppet boy, but the opposite is true. Mad Dog Putin has Lukashenko licking from his paw. And in a quite scary development, that includes the Putin hand that holds the nuclear codes.
A few months ago, it was disclosed that Putin and Lukashenko had reached an agreement to deploy Russian nukes in Belarus this summer to counter the “threat” posed by the independent democratic country that Mad Dog Putin roared into with his tanks in February 2022—that would be the Ukraine. Ever since, the Russkies, characteristic of their usual performance in combat, have gotten their tails kicked. I have commented here previously for American Radio Journal that such is hardly a surprise. That is what Russians do in battle; they get their butts kicked.
Unfortunately, in the case of Putin’s Russia, that could portend something actually worse, which I’ve warned about for over a year, namely: that Mad Dog Putin might get so desperate over his military’s predictable failures that he resorts to using nuclear weapons against Ukraine.
But only as a “defensive” measure, you see.
Such is precisely what Putin’s puppet from Belarus said a few weeks ago.
Lukashenko said in mid-June that he would “not hesitate” to use nukes against an “aggressor” country, no doubt with the “aggressor” Ukraine in mind. “I believe it is unlikely that anyone would want to wage war against a country that has such weapons,” asserted Lukashenko of his burgeoning nuclear power. “It is a weapon of deterrence…. God forbid if I have to make a decision to use this weapon in modern times. But I won’t hesitate should there be an aggression against us.” No doubt thinking of Zelensky’s Ukraine, Lukashenko added that he did not want to see “not a single bastard … set foot on Belarusian soil.” Should such persons do so, “the response will be immediate.”
And so, like Mad Dog Putin, Lukashenko is now talking nukes—but only defensively, of course. Should such a prospect of “deterrence” become necessary. Poor Belarus. Poor Russia. How awful to be right next door to that vicious country called Ukraine!
Where does this leave the world now? We watch and wait, hoping that little Vlad and his big Belarusian buddy don’t use those nukes they’re now coveting together. We shall see. I remain very pessimistic.
For American Radio Journal, I’m Paul Kengor. Thanks for listening.
