BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

28/08/2007

Envoy Says Russia Might Deploy Nuclear Weapons In Belarus

Russian Ambassador to Belarus Aleksandr Surikov suggested in an interview with Interfax-West on August 27 that Russia might consider deploying nuclear weapons in Belarus in response to U.S. plans to operate a missile shield in Europe. "All this depends on the level of our political integration, as well as on the views of experts, diplomats, and the military -- [whether it is] necessary and possible, when and how. I have in mind facilities linked to nuclear weapons," Surikov said. Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Vanshyna said later the same day that Belarus already hosts Russian military facilities, adding that officials in Minsk and Moscow have so far held no discussions on a nuclear deployment. "Time will tell whether such a discussion will take place," she noted. Former Belarusian Supreme Soviet speaker Stanislau Shushkevich offered a critical view. "Russia is more and more turning back to the positions of the former USSR, wanting to be an empire that could threaten the world with nuclear warheads," Shushkevich, who signed the accord on the dissolution of the Soviet Union and another on withdrawing nuclear missiles from Belarus in the early 1990s, told RFE/RL's Belarusian Service. "Only someone considering political suicide would start talks on deploying nuclear weapons," Anatol Lyabedzka, leader of the opposition United Civic Party, was quoted by Reuters as saying. "A majority of Belarusians would oppose this," JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/08/3-cee/cee-280807.asp

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