BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

29/08/2007

Russian Diplomat Backs Down On Statement About Deployment Of Nukes In Belarus

Russian Ambassador to Belarus Aleksandr Surikov on August 28 denied that he said Russia might consider deploying nuclear facilities in Belarus in response to the U.S. plans to expand its missile-defense shield to Eastern Europe, Belapan reported. "Russia has no plans to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus. I didn't say what was reported that I said," Surikov told journalists in Minsk. When asked by Interfax on August 27 whether Russia would deploy new military facilities in Belarus in response to the U.S. missile-shield plans, Surikov reportedly said plans "depend on the level of our political integration [with Belarus]" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," August 28, 2007). "The only [nuclear weapons] that might be deployed in Belarus without violating international agreements are tactical nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, there are no formal documents forbidding [that]," Andrey Fyodarau, a Belarusian expert in international relations, told RFE/RL's Belarus Service on August 28. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Belarus, along with Ukraine and Kazakhstan, agreed to destroy all strategic nuclear warheads that were located on its territory or turn them over to Russia. Belarus became a nuclear-weapons-free state in November 1996. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/08/3-cee/cee-290807.asp