Russian President Putin said that Russia has more nuclear weapons than NATO countries. And part of it — the first tactical nuclear charges — has already been delivered to Belarus.
He was quoted by the Russian media.
At the same time, Putin said that Russia is supposedly being "inclined" to reduce its nuclear arsenal, but it is not going to do so. The head of the Russian Federation also repeated that he would "theoretically" use nuclear weapons in the event of an existential threat to the state.
Meanwhile, NATO, the United States and other owners of nuclear weapons did not record the transfer of Russian weapons to Belarus. At least it wasnʼt reported.
- A few days earlier, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus Oleksandr Lukashenko announced that his country had begun receiving Russian tactical nuclear weapons. And he assured that some samples are three times more powerful than the atomic bombs that the USA dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
- On June 9, Putin announced that the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus will begin immediately after the preparation of facilities for them is completed on July 7-8.
- On May 29, Lukashenko advised those willing to obtain nuclear weapons to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus.
- On May 25, the defense ministers of Belarus and Russia Viktor Khrenin and Serhiy Shoigu signed documents on the deployment of non-strategic nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory. In this way, Russia will place tactical nuclear weapons in a special storage facility in Belarus, and only it will be able to control them. According to Khrenin, the agreement is "an effective response to the aggressive policy of countries unfriendly to us."
- Putin then stated that Lukashenko had long raised the issue of deploying Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Putin says that the US has long deployed such weapons in a number of countries, so there is "nothing unusual" in Belarusʼ request.