Kremlin says no Russian troops are needed in Belarus, instead sends a team of propagandists to Minsk
The Kremlin does not see the need to deploy troops to Belarus, said the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.
He noted that the military assistance obligations stipulated in the Collective Security Treaty apply only to the cases when an external attack had been carried out on a member country.
"There really are a number of obligations of the parties provided for mutual assistance. But you know that now there is no such need, and the Belarusian leadership itself has recognized that there is no such need," Peskov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.
When asked when such an assistance might be needed, the spokesman called the hypothetical reasoning in this regard "unacceptable and impossible".
When asked to comment on the information about the convoys of Russian armored vehicles moving to the Belarusian border, Peskov said that "Russian military equipment is located throughout the Russian Federation, so there is nothing to comment on."
On August 15, amid mass protests against election fraud and police violence in the country, incumbent President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said he had agreed with Putin on military support. "We have a treaty with the Russian Federation within the framework of the Union State and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. These are the moments that fit this treaty," Lukashenko said.
However, despite Russia's official refusal, eyewitnesses have already noticed the Russian military in Belarus. As reported, the day before a column of armored vehicles crossed the border from Smolensk and moved towards the Belarusian city of Orsha.
In addition, Russia supports Lukashenko on the propaganda front. Local workers have been replaced by Russian workers on Belarusian state television. The TV host of "Belarusian Television" (BT) Anna Martinovskaya, said that the police refused to let the workers into the building of the TV center without any explanation. "Two planes of employees from Russia have arrived, who perform our duties for a very large sum," Martinovskaya said when asked who is currently working.
Yesterday, Tu-214 with the flight number RA-64523 landed in Minsk. The plane took off from Vnukovo at 16:00 Moscow time, after 1 hour and 17 minutes it was in the capital of Belarus. Open sources have repeatedly reported that the airliner is used for official business trips of the director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov