Russia May Absorb Belarus: 'We're Ready to Unite,' President Says

[OnlinePoker]

Source: Newsweek

The president of Belarus has said the country is ready to unite with long-time ally Russia, raising the prospect of Moscow absorbing the eastern European dictatorship on the borders of Poland and Lithuania.

President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet state since the presidential post was created in 1994, said Friday his nation was ready to join with Russia, The Moscow Times reported.

Lukashenko made the comments on the third and final day of bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rumors have long abounded that Belarus could be absorbed into Russia under Putin’s watch, deepening the “union state” arrangement that has existed between them since the late 1990s.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/russia-belarus-unite-absorb-union-vladimir-putin-alexander-lukashenko-1333800

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Putin's plan all along is the reunification of the Soviet Union's breakaway states into greater Russia, by coercion if possible but by force if necessary.

[left-of-center2012]

1. From the linked article ...

"Putin’s presidential term will end in 2024, and the current constitution prevents him for running again.
It has been suggested that he could bypass these restrictions by creating a new nation through a union with Belarus."

[politicaljunkie41910]

42. Putin wouldn't have to create a new nation to stay in power. He could just install another puppet

to extend the number of terms he could lawfully run for, or extend the length of each reign again, or both as he did with Dmitry Medvedev previously when he was termed out. Whose going to stop him? Besides, Putin is getting too old to play these sham games. He may just decide to prove exactly how badass he is and just announced that he's staying for an indefinite amount of time. Who's going to challenge him?

[progree]

2. Borders 2 Baltic states (Latvia, Lith.), long border with Ukraine, Poland, and USSR (err, Russia).

The border is 58 miles from Kiev

Map of Belarus

[joe_stampingbull]

11. not far from Warsaw either

The Poles will be mortified

[oldsoftie]

13. No wonder the Poles would like a US base there.

[Sapient Donkey]

22. Does Poland have a large population that identifies as Russian?

Ukraine and Belarus have a population ripe for Russian exploitation in that regards. I don't know a whole lot about Poland, but I never got the impression there was a big pro-russia movement there. If they don't have that then Russia's poland options would be an actual invasion, and unless things go to real shit in the world, I don't think even Putin would do that. But then again, they could just stir up so much unrest in those countries that it causes enough mayhem to serve as some sort of "peacekeeping"/"humanitarian" pretext. That might be a bit far-fetched, though.

[oldsoftie]

23. No they don't. but Putin wants ALL the former East Bloc nations back under his wing.

Thats why I can see why Poland would want a US base there, like they've talked about a few months ago when the Polish leader met with trump.

[YOHABLO]

32. Thank you for posting the map.

[cstanleytech]

3. Hardly surprising Putin is trying to reassemble the old USSR but he is picking which of

the old ones he wants the most.
My guess is once he does this he will then turn his eye either to the Ukraine or to either Latvia or Lithuania depending on which he wants more.

[mwooldri]

7. Latvia and Lithuania are EU and NATO members.

Putin goes in there at his peril. This would start WWIII.

Formally annexing the breakaway parts of Ukraine would be logical. Ukraine and the West will complain loudly but do nothing.

[oldsoftie]

14. Unless Jacklick ruins NATO

[JI7]

25. Putin ordered Trump to destroy NATO

[onetexan]

29. That was also the endgame of his meddling in UK Brexit and elections elsewhere in Europe.

[cstanleytech]

30. He would probably work around that be having supposed rebels that want to join Russia overthrow

the government kind of like what he is doing in the Ukraine.

[DBoon]

4. The German word for this is "anschluss"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anschluss

[raccoon]

16. My mind went there too... nt

[blue-wave]

5. This, if it happens

will be on the backs of the republicons. Every treasonous one of them. It will result in our European allies kissing Uncle Vlad's fat ass.

[cstanleytech]

31. Unless someone removes Vlad......permanently.

[SunSeeker]

6. Wow. This is going to put a lot more pressure on Ukraine.

This is such a sad situation for the long-suffering people of Belarus and Ukraine.

[tclambert]

8. Is Putin trying to get the band back together?

What is his endgame? Does he miss Stalin that much? Are they going back to the USSR?

[ancianita]

38. Endgame: warm water ports, access to oceanic oil shipping, pipeline land routes to ports, wealth

and military dominance of energy sources -- Venezuela, the Arctic, etc. -- Russian control of world energy sales, other nations' laws and economics -- by any means necessary, secrecy and stealth means being the top two.

Putin sees Russia's Eurasian hegemony as the endgame of his endgame.

[Rhiannon12866]

9. The people of Georgia will not stand for this

I visited there back in the late '80s - went with my grandmother and her peace group to the USSR. We were privileged to go to then-Soviet Georgia and it's as different from Russia proper as you can get. It's more Middle Eastern, different language and they still carried a huge resentment against the then-USSR. I was surprised to still see many statues of Stalin - who I thought was in disgrace in the USSR. But Stalin was Georgian, not Russian. And when I asked the reasons for the statues - I was told that he was held in high regard in his home state "because he killed so many Russians."

[JudyM]

18. Would you ever think that Americans would stand for what tRump has been doing?

How much of an “emergency” do we need to act on his constellation of assaults on our values and very democracy? Everyone’s just waiting for Mueller, hoping he delivers and that action is in fact taken in response. And if not...? The only real revolt that’s happened is by the kids, and they’re focused on the gun issue. But our democracy’s at stake.

[Rhiannon12866]

27. It boggles the mind every single day that this is still going on!

And it keeps getting worse! It really is unbelievable - and Obama wore that tan suit, and chewed gum.

[ansible]

10. It'll be no different than Chechnya if this happens, a de-facto autonomous state

Ever since the chechen wars it's been ruled over by Ramzan Kadyrov. In theory Putin still rules it but in reality Kadyrov's law is the final say.

[DFW]

12. Putin wants the old Russian Empire back together.

The "stans" of Central Asia are one thing.

White Russia ("Belarus&quot was never really thought of as an independent state by the old guard Russians. Only young people born after 1985 really grew up in a state by that name that they can remember, and they all speak Russian, not Ukrainian. Lukashenko has ruled the place with an iron fist, and would have no trouble continuing to do so as Putin's puppet. He sorta does that anyway.

[DBoon]

19. The old Russian Empire included Poland and the Baltics

This should make those citizens very nervous

[DFW]

20. Go back a ways and those areas belonged to Sweden. n/t

[tavernier]

41. It does.

It always has.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Which could then bring up the question of the Russian Kaliningrad exclave

which used to be Königsberg, East Prussia. Its land borders are with Poland and Lithuania, but it's only about 50km from Belarus (while over 300km from the current border of the rest of Russia). I wouldn't put it past Putin to say "hey, it's only 50km - give us a corridor to connect it all up".

The separation of East Prussia from the rest of Germany was one of the excuses Hitler used for the invasion of Poland.

[Fuzzpope]

17. A beast arose from the sea..

Here comes the U.S.S.R. V2.0.

Brought to you, in part, by the forth fifth president of the United States, Donald Fucking Trump.

[Sapient Donkey]

21. I worked with a guy from Belarus back in like 2012.

He always said he was Russian so when he said I Belarus I asked him to clarify if he's from Russia or Belarus, and he said something along the lines of "what's the difference?"

This was before the stuff that went down in Ukraine so I didn't think much of it. Now I'm curious if the majority of Belarusian are like my former co-worker, or if it's more like Ukraine in which it will lead to a civil war that will end with half of the country being absorbed by Russia.

I feel for the Baltic states with Trump in power. At least with Obama and if Hillary won, then they could count on US support if Russia tried it with them. Not so sure Trump would give that same level of support. I suppose that is why they worked to hard to help discredit Clinton and promote Trump.

[allgood33]

24. And so it continues... nt

[Nitram]

26. The Putin Agenda: reconstitute the USSR.

[ck4829]

28. Kick

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. Did something happen for the kick? (nt)

[YOHABLO]

33. If the people of Belarus want this annexation then there's not a lot we can do about it.

Has anyone taken a measurement of what the people of Belarus think about this? Haven't heard.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

36. I'm sure we'll see another 95.5% referendum for annexation.

The Belurussian president is a puppet of Putin like Yanukovich was.

Or Trump is.

[ancianita]

39. They'll want what they're told to want.

[Xolodno]

34. More bullshit.....

...Belarus has inquired numerous times about rejoining Russia, and the sound in response, was crickets. Belarus is a money loser for Russia...and its probably why they want to "reunite"...as they aren't going anywhere economically now, nor the foreseeable future.

Russia will reincorporate Belarus into the "Empire" when its feasibly convenient to them....but not before.

For example, Russia could have invaded Ukraine and permanently taken via puppet ruler,...but they didn't. In other words, they aren't looking for territory, they are looking for something else.

[Exotiki]

37. He wouldn't do this if Joe Biden was president

For sure.