Days before Nato leaders descend on Vilnius for the alliance’s annual summit next month, things will be afoot just across the border in Belarus. In a meeting with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko at his summer residence in Sochi on Friday, Putin revealed that Russia will start deploying nuclear weapons to the country on the weekend of 7 and 8 July.
Putin’s decision to move nuclear weapons into Belarus just three days before the Nato summit begins in Lithuania is almost certainly no coincidence. As the alliance he regularly rages about prepares to sit down to discuss defence and deterrence, the Russian president is metaphorically puffing out his chest to remind them that he is worth taking seriously, actually.
‘On the most sensitive issues that we agreed on,’ Putin told Lukashenko, ‘everything is going according to plan. As you know, on 7 and 8 July, the preparation of the relevant facilities will be completed, and we will immediately begin measures related to the deployment of the relevant types of weapons on your territory.
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