On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would be ready to send some of its forces to Belarus to help quell protests. The official warned demonstrators not to overextend their efforts in ousting their president.
Putin revealed that his country had prepared a special reserve force filled with security officers that will be stationed to restore order in the possibility of chaos in its close neighbor.
Special reserve force
According to The New York Times, during an interview with the Russian state television, Putin said he had released the order to form a certain reserve of law enforcement officers that Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, Belarus's authoritarian leader requested.
The Russian president that the reserve force has not been sent to its neighbor yet because Putin promised he would not order their deployment unless the situation in Belarus gets worse. His remarks suggest that Putin is willing to use force to quell the protests that have been raging for two weeks.
In a statement, Putin called Belarus the closest country to Russia and said that despite Belarus's citizens being the rightful holder of their country's future during a disputed presidential election on August 9. The Russian president also said his administration is not indifferent to the incidents occurring in the neighboring nation.
The protests in Belarus has resulted in widespread criticism against Putin and has given him a difficult dilemma. Several weeks of demonstrations in Far East Russia and a surge of resentment over the poisoning of Aleksei A. Navalny, Putin's most prominent political adversary. The incident shows that a fellow authoritarian who seemed invincible similar to Putin might give citizens ideas.
However, Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland's prime minister, said that Putin's idea of using force to quell protests in Belarus masked the fact that he had plans of hostile international law breach, as reported by BBC.
Aiding allied countries
Both Russia and Belarus are part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which consists of several post-Soviet countries. The two countries joined in a union in 1996 to promote greater integration and ensure that citizens received the right to work and live freely in either country.
Confirming what Lukashenko claimed previously that Russia would move to assist him using force if things got out of hand as Putin begins to move increasingly aggressive against protests in Belarus.
According to CBS News, the demonstrations in Belarus have been mostly peaceful despite Lukashenko's continued aggressive responses, known as Europe's last dictator, a title he has long-since relished.
On Sunday, Protests were accompanied by the president's helicopter hovering overhead while he called demonstrators "rats" before coming down equipped with a bullet-proof vest and wielding an AK-47 assault rifle. He continued to applaud his security forces, which were the only ones between him and his authoritarian rule's last moments.
However, Putin is wary of becoming involved in Lukashenko's fight for survival, which would potentially garner widespread criticism and global condemnation and other possible sanctions from the West. The most significant factor for the Russian president's doubts is the risk of turning pro-Russian Belarus citizens into another anti-Moscow crown similar to Ukraine.
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