{"id":213206,"date":"2020-09-08T07:05:09","date_gmt":"2020-09-08T07:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=213206"},"modified":"2020-09-11T07:59:13","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T07:59:13","slug":"hundreds-of-us-troops-arrive-in-lithuania-as-belarus-tensions-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=213206","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of US troops arrive in Lithuania as Belarus tensions mount"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFP \u2013 Sept 6, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

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<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than a dozen Abrams tanks crossed the Lithuanian border from neighbouring Nato partner Poland on Saturday afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

The deployment, to last until November, is \u201cpre-planned and not associated with any events in the region\u201d, a Lithuanian defence ministry statement said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya managed to gather both thousands of liberals and neo-Nazis against President Lukashenko.<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maintaining that he won the ballot fairly, Lukashenko has cracked down on an unprecedented wave of mass protests demanding his ouster.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has also accused the Nato defence alliance of building up forces in Poland and Lithuania along Belarus\u2019s western border.<\/span><\/p>\n

Warsaw, Vilnius and the Western defence alliance have dubbed these allegations baseless.<\/span><\/p>\n

Belarus\u2019s Soviet-era master Russia, which has long courted Lukashenko as a buffer against the West, has promised him military support.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

The crowds of female demonstrators, who had responded to an opposition call for a \u201cwomen\u2019s march\u201d, included many holding up the white-red-white flag of the opposition and others carrying flowers.<\/span><\/p>\n

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned that unless Lukashenko responded to the European Union\u2019s concerns, more sanctions could follow those already agreed by the bloc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lukashenko needed to talk to the opposition and agree to rerun the election, Maas told the Bild newspaper.<\/span><\/p>\n

The crackdown on protests in Belarus appeared to show no sign of letting up however.<\/span><\/p>\n

Charges are expected against protesters who were arrested on Friday, the country\u2019s Interior Ministry said.<\/span><\/p>\n

About 40 demonstrators were detained, but only about half of them will face charges, the ministry said.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was also revealed that prominent opposition politician Olga Kovalkova had also left Belarus, for neighbouring Poland.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 36-year-old Kovalkova, a confidante of Tikhanovskaya\u2019s, was arrested in August and spent several days in detention before being released on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Additional reporting by DPA<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As U.S. forces deploy near the border, President Lukashenko has accused NATO of building up forces to oust him. Russia has pledged military support for Belarus <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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-213206","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\/213206","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=213206"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213209,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213206\/revisions\/213209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=213206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=213206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=213206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}