If, as announced, Russia transfers nuclear weapons to Belarus’ territory, that will hardly change anything militarily, says Liviu Horovitz, security expert at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin.
Mr. Horvitz, Vladimir Putin announced on Russian state television that he would station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus. How is that to be assessed?
Horovitz: Of course, only Putin knows exactly what that means. It appears to be the continuation of a scare campaign aimed primarily at Westerners. Russia began threatening nuclear weapons months before invading Ukraine in February 2022. Shortly after the war began, it was rumored that the nuclear forces had been put on high alert. That was not the case, as quickly became clear. And now we don’t know if atomic monkeys actually go to Belarus.
But is it possible?