Worldcrunch
On Jan. 29, Armenia granted asylum to Salman Mukaev, a Chechen who was tortured in his homeland due to suspicions of being gay. In an interview inVazhnyye istorii, Mukaev recounts his four-year ordeal, and reveals the depth of anti-LGBTQ hatred in the Russian republic.
After Wagner’s aborted coup and relocation to Belarus come the first reports and images of military camps, including one in Asipovichi, a town south of Minsk. What does this mean for the still unstable situation in Russia? For the war in Ukraine? And the role of Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko?
After months of anticipation, expectations were impossibly high when Ukrainian forces finally launched a counteroffensive into Russian-occupied territory. But those expecting a lightning advance, like last year’s liberation of Kharkiv, overlooked one critical fact: the war is nearly 10 years old.
A few weeks after an explosion at a military field in Belarus, Vladimir Putin announced plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. There is a connection, even if Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko is walking a tight rope of domestic control and keeping Putin satisfied.
This is among the most important signs of how the war has turned against Russia in the past three months.
As the war in Donbas is bogged down, the most likely major new gambit in Vladimir Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine would be to get military support from his ally in Minsk, Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko. How would that actually go down?
Staunch Putin ally Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has recently tried to distance himself from an escalating war. But a series of events over the past month look set to drag him into Moscow’s war with all the risks that entails for his small country.
The longer the war in Ukraine continues, the louder calls will grow for a ceasefire . Stockholm-based analysts explain how the West can reach a viable deal on this: primarily by avoiding strategic mistakes from last time following the annexation of Crimea.
The Russian president’s much talked-about insult toward Ukrainians and President Zelensky was really part of his long game to force the conditions of the Minsk agreement that would destabilize Kyiv and distract the U.S. and Europe enough to move in on Putin’s terms.
Minsk is a former Hero City: a Soviet title awarded to 12 cities for their “outstanding services to the Motherland” during World War II. The honor came with an obelisk.
This monument on Minsk’s Island of Tears is dedicated to the memory of the Belarusian soldiers who died in the 1979-1988 Soviet-Afghan war.
UKRAINE LAUNCHES OFFENSIVEUkrainian government forces launched an offensive against pro-Russian rebels near the port city of Mariupol today, Reuters reports. Leaders from Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia are set to gather tomorrow in Minsk, Belarus, to discuss a possible ceasefire. After meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday in Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledged […]
Things are getting nasty between Russia and bordering countries Belarus and Ukraine. And then there’s the Syrian factor.