{"id":121811,"date":"2015-09-20T08:51:31","date_gmt":"2015-09-20T08:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=121811"},"modified":"2015-09-23T06:53:28","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T06:53:28","slug":"putin-moves-to-establish-russian-military-base-in-belarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=121811","title":{"rendered":"Putin moves to establish Russian military base in Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Associated Press &#8212; Sept 19, 2015<\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_78420\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Putin-orders-massive-strike-on-Saudi-Arabia-if-West-attacks-Syria.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-78420\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-78420\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Putin-orders-massive-strike-on-Saudi-Arabia-if-West-attacks-Syria-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"President Putin. Click to enlarge \" width=\"300\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Putin-orders-massive-strike-on-Saudi-Arabia-if-West-attacks-Syria-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Putin-orders-massive-strike-on-Saudi-Arabia-if-West-attacks-Syria.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-78420\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Putin. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signaled his intention to establish a Russian military air base in neighboring Belarus \u2014 a move sure to unnerve Poland and the Baltic nations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Belarus has made clear it would not welcome a Russian base, but the former Soviet republic remains dependent on Moscow for credit and energy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Putin ordered the Russian Defense Ministry, with the participation of the Russian Foreign Ministry, to hold talks with their Belarusian counterparts and sign the agreement that is reached.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has not commented on Putin&#8217;s initiative. The two presidents met Friday in the southern Russian city of Sochi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Russia has radar and a navy communications facility in Belarus, but this would be the first base.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Belarus is a desirable location for Russia because it borders Ukraine and three members of the European Union and NATO: Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;Against the background of the Ukrainian crisis, the stationing of a permanent Russian military contingent in Belarus will upset the balance of forces and facilitate an increase in tension in the whole region,&#8221; said analyst Valery Karbalevich.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">As part of an effort to improve Belarus&#8217; relations with the West, Lukashenko has stayed neutral on the conflict in Ukraine between the Western-aligned government in Kiev and the Russia-backed separatists in the east.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;It is obvious that the Kremlin really twisted Lukashenko&#8217;s arm,&#8221; Karbalevich said. &#8220;Belarus is totally dependent on Russia and has to pay somehow for the cheap Russian oil, gas and credits.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/story\/military\/2015\/09\/19\/putin-moves-establish-russian-military-base-belarus\/72476770\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No doubt in response to NATO&#8217;s steady advance eastwards <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-russia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121811"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121813,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121811\/revisions\/121813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}