DISINFO: Aggressive NATO actions force Belarus to deploy Russian nuclear weapons
SUMMARY
Dangerous qualitative changes in NATO's activities take place around Belarus. Namely, the NATO military groups concentrated on the continent are able to unleash military aggression without mobilisation – currently, there exist conditions for large-scale military provocations. In this situation, Belarus and Russia are forced to take new active measures of strategic deterrence, including practical steps to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus. All security guarantees once given by the collective West have now been violated.
RESPONSE
The article gives a false pretext for stationing Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus in the context of nuclear fearmongering. The ‘aggressive West’ disinformation claim is frequently promoted in pro-Kremlin media – it is part of the recurring disinformation narrative accusing the West of anti-Russian and anti-Belarusian policies, the West's allegedly belligerent and hostile agenda towards them.
Reacting to the possible deployment of a nuclear weapon in Belarus announced by Russia, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, HRVP Josep Borrell wrote on Twitter: “Belarus hosting Russian nuclear weapons would mean an irresponsible escalation & threat to European security. Belarus can still stop it, it is their choice. The EU stands ready to respond with further sanctions”.
The Kremlin messaging of stationing nuclear weapons is a convenient way of achieving more aims in one manipulative move. It activates the fear in Western target audiences of nuclear Armageddon. It limits the freedom to manoeuvre of Lukashenka and Minsk tying them closer to Moscow. There will be a price should Minsk want to say no.
Read earlier disinformation cases alleging that nuclear weapons in Belarus are justified because of territorial claims of Poland and the Baltic states, that the West’s hybrid war against Russia forced it to station nuclear weapons in Belarus, and that the EU might start a war against Belarus and Transnistria.