AFP – Sept 6, 2020
An F-22 Raptor from the 1st Fighter Wing, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., sits on the flightline Oct. 17, 2017, at Powidz Air Base, Poland. Click to enlarge
Several hundred US troops started arriving in Nato member Lithuania for military exercises near the border with Belarus, where tensions are mounting over its disputed presidential election.
More than a dozen Abrams tanks crossed the Lithuanian border from neighbouring Nato partner Poland on Saturday afternoon.
The deployment, to last until November, is “pre-planned and not associated with any events in the region”, a Lithuanian defence ministry statement said.
Lithuania took the lead in European diplomacy on Belarus after veteran strongman Alexander Lukashenko was re-elected in an August 9 vote that the opposition claims was rigged.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya managed to gather both thousands of liberals and neo-Nazis against President Lukashenko.
Vilnius has given refuge to opposition challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who claimed victory in the ballot, and has blacklisted Lukashenko along with Baltic neighbours Estonia and Latvia.
Maintaining that he won the ballot fairly, Lukashenko has cracked down on an unprecedented wave of mass protests demanding his ouster.
He has also accused the Nato defence alliance of building up forces in Poland and Lithuania along Belarus’s western border.
Warsaw, Vilnius and the Western defence alliance have dubbed these allegations baseless.
Belarus’s Soviet-era master Russia, which has long courted Lukashenko as a buffer against the West, has promised him military support.
Preparations for the military exercises came as thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Belarusian capital, Minsk, and other cities in a further challenge to the rule of Lukashenko.
The crowds of female demonstrators, who had responded to an opposition call for a “women’s march”, included many holding up the white-red-white flag of the opposition and others carrying flowers.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned that unless Lukashenko responded to the European Union’s concerns, more sanctions could follow those already agreed by the bloc.
Lukashenko needed to talk to the opposition and agree to rerun the election, Maas told the Bild newspaper.
The crackdown on protests in Belarus appeared to show no sign of letting up however.
Charges are expected against protesters who were arrested on Friday, the country’s Interior Ministry said.
About 40 demonstrators were detained, but only about half of them will face charges, the ministry said.
It was also revealed that prominent opposition politician Olga Kovalkova had also left Belarus, for neighbouring Poland.
She told internet news site tut.by that she had been pressured into leaving by authorities and that she wants to return to Minsk soon.
The 36-year-old Kovalkova, a confidante of Tikhanovskaya’s, was arrested in August and spent several days in detention before being released on Thursday.
Additional reporting by DPA
“The deployment, to last until November, is “pre-planned and not associated with any events in the region”, a Lithuanian defence ministry statement said.” So no one at AFP fake news thinks the Belarus protests were planned?
The US supports Nazis as it turns further to the right to attain hegemony.
The IMF makes offers you can’t refuse.
Sounds like all the crap democrats are doing all over the eastern europe or the world
Belarus aint No Ukraine! If the US/UK try to overthrow the Elected Government of Belarus it will be all out war and alot of people will die on both sides. Russia will not take this lying down and they wont.
NATO = North Atlantic Terror Organization. It should hsve been dismantled after the fall of the Berlin wall. Trump called them out. Abd they hate him.
The opposition is BS! They are paid CIA stoges Like Nalvany WHOM went to Yale received a Scholarship to the Yale world fellows program in 2010 and bang you have created a Puppet whom was exploited by Bill Browder ( CIA handler ).
Everywhere the USA attempt Regime Change its the Citizens of the country that suffer.
The President recently spoke to RT and has said the Opposition wants to destroy Belarus of every thing and persecute his supporters. Sounds like Ukraine 2.0.
Look at Iraq, Lybia, Vietnam, Cuba, Syria, Lebanon, Serbia, Kosovo, Somalia, Sudan.
Belarus is ripe for Privatisation. Thats what this all about Money and Lots of it.
This is all Poland! Another puppet country of the USA.
If you havent seen war you dont want to. I wouldn’t wish War on my worst enemy. It totally changes your whole outlook on life and Government. I was used as a pawn by my Government and it destroyed me mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Quote:Hundreds of US troops arrive in Lithuania as Belarus tensions mount ????
Quote:On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over “three million German soldiers”, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory.
& they want to frighten Russia & Belorussian with “hundred of US LGBT troops ??
ROFLOL…
No worries. We know how frightened supposedly hardened US soldiers get around better forces. Iran, the Hez, Russia and now Chinese will. My oh my the little minstrel boy is about to get another whipping for playing the wrong tune. Silly billy boys in another man’s land. Tch tch tch no learning for the retarded of humanity we understand. Now run along little kids you’re in the real man’s world now. Best of luck.