[REGNUM] The move of Moscow and Minsk with the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory creates new problems for Warsaw. According to some Polish experts, the "physical" presence of Russia on the border can greatly change the internal political configuration in Poland.
The words of Russian President Vladimir Putin that 10 aircraft capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons were deployed on the territory of Belarus, and that the Iskander missile system, which "could also be a carrier" of tactical nuclear weapons, was transferred to Minsk, could not be ignored in Warsaw.
But if from the side of the European Union an operational comment followed at the level of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell , then Poland, as of the morning of March 27, reacted with statements by Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina .
"Putin feeds on our fear of nuclear weapons and scares us with them from time to time, which is unacceptable in the civilized world," Yasina told Polskie Radio. "Belarus is becoming more and more a dependent part of Russia. Belarus allowed the Russians to use their territory for aggression, and we remember the crisis on our border. Belarus is approaching dependence on Russia, but it is still not Russia."
However, it is unlikely that Warsaw is seriously afraid of nuclear strikes, however, as usual.
As the head of the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces, General Tomasz Petrovsky, said in February this year, "if Russia decides to continue its operations against the West, then it can be assumed that aggression against Poland may be primarily non-kinetic, and the Armed Forces of Russia and Belarus will be the last and decisive element used in such a scenario. I think that the military threat to Poland coming from Russia should not be perceived only through the prism of a military strike."
One of the vulnerable springboards for Warsaw is the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border.
The Polish ruling party "Law and Justice" (PiS) went to build a fence when refugees of non-Ukrainian origin began to try to get from Belarus to Poland. Polish society generally approved of PiS's actions, but there were also "renegades" who criticized the authorities. The problem for Law and Justice here is that the remarks of these oppositionists were picked up by influential forces outside the country. And not only in the European Parliament, which the ruling party has long regarded as a "hostile" organization.
Recently, the US State Department presented a report on human rights.
It mentions the detention by Polish soldiers in November 2021 in the village of Veiki of three photojournalists who were close to the Polish-Belarusian border to report on the migration crisis.
"There were reports that journalists were subjected to violence, harassment or intimidation by the authorities because of their work," the State Department notes, citing the example of the arrest of a Franco-German film crew of TV channel Arte, who mistakenly ended up near restricted areas near the Polish -Belarusian border.
Such a reaction from Washington shows Warsaw's vulnerability to Minsk, which owns the political initiative. And attempts to "asymmetrically" respond, for example, by blocking transport crossings on the Polish-Belarusian border, become for PiS a classic shot in the foot.
In this situation, the opposition forces to Law and Justice get a reason to loudly ask the question: who is to blame for the fact that Poland "lost" Belarus, and Russia "acquired" it? And the ruling party cannot shift the responsibility for such a mistake to someone else.
So the move of Moscow and Minsk with the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory creates new problems for Warsaw. According to some Polish experts, the "physical" presence of Russia on the border can greatly change the internal political configuration in Poland.
Polish "peace supporters" are becoming more active, who are already gathering around the initiative of political scientist Leszek Sykulski "This is not our war."
This slogan is picked up in other European countries. And, as experts and analysts close to PiS previously warned, the growth of the anti-war movement in the West, especially in Europe, could seriously threaten Warsaw's policy of actively supporting the Kyiv regime.
To counter the consequences, Law and Justice could once again ask the United States to place several American atomic bombs in Poland, which are currently stored in Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Greece. So far, however, Washington has shown no such desire.
Moreover, commenting on Putin's statement, the Pentagon noted: "We saw no reason to change the readiness of our nuclear forces, nor signs that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons." The White House is of the same opinion.
And this means that the Polish ruling party will have to somehow cope with the effects of “political radiation” from the Russian tactical nuclear weapons deployed in Belarus, which are more dangerous for PiS than conventional radioactivity.
March 27, 2023
Stanislav Stremidlovsky
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Russian Foreign Ministry: the reaction of countries to Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus is puzzling
[REGNUM] The inadequate reaction of some Western countries to decisions regarding the development of cooperation between Russia and Belarus in the military nuclear sphere cannot but cause bewilderment. This is how the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commented on the expression of a number of Western politicians of concern about Russian-Belarusian cooperation on nuclear weapons.
She stressed that NATO countries have been adhering to the concept of "joint nuclear missions" for many decades, recalling the nuclear weapons deployed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, which belong to the United States.
According to the official representative of the department, in the context of a total hybrid war and the declared intention of the United States and NATO to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia, it was "naive" to continue to rely on the complete absence of any military-technical countermeasures from Moscow in the nuclear sphere.
Maria Zakharova believes that the obvious fact of Washington's doctrinal lowering of the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons in recent years with a shift in focus to "limited scenarios" of their use is also public knowledge.
"We have reserved and still reserve the right to take the necessary additional steps to ensure the security of Russia and its allies," Zakharova assured.
As REGNUM reported, the meeting of the UN Security Council on nuclear weapons in Belarus will take place on March 28 or 29.