To date, about 32,000 servicemen of the joint armed forces of the North Atlantic Alliance and the American army are stationed in the immediate vicinity of Belarus and Russia as part of the operations of the NATO and the United States bloc conducted in Europe. This group has more than one thousand armored vehicles, about 160 artillery systems and mortars, 235 aircraft and helicopters. As the President of Belarus recently noted, "all this speaks at least about a show of force."
In addition, we recall that the largest NATO exercises in the last 40 years, Steadfast Defender-24, are being held on the territory of the countries of Northern and Eastern Europe, in which about 90 thousand troops of the most aggressive military bloc in the world participate.
"We are actually in the epicenter of a protracted major military-political crisis using world-old methods of intimidation. The forecasts are disappointing. The appetites and activity of the collective West will only increase," Alexander Lukashenko described the current situation, speaking to the security forces in February this year.
It is also worth recalling that the collective West has not abandoned attempts to destabilize the situation in Belarus in order to create conditions for a "color revolution" (or internal armed conflict), while involving militants of Belarusian origin trained in Polish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian camps with extremely radical nationalist (Nazi) views.
In turn, in response to the militarization of the region and outright provocations by NATO, both subjects of the Union State are taking appropriate measures. For example, in Belarus, given the location of the alliance's military contingent, which is unprecedentedly close to the state border, not only border guards, but also other law enforcement agencies are involved in protecting the Belarusian borders. Thus, military units and units of operational commands cover the western and northwestern borders of the country. On the southern border, the relevant tasks are performed by special operations forces. The formations and military units of the regional grouping of troops of Russia and Belarus, deployed on the Belarusian territory in the autumn of 2021, do not remain aloof.
In order to prevent the destabilization of the socio-political situation inside the country, the State Security Committee, as the situational coordinator of the actions of the security unit, is instructed to increase the effectiveness of the state system for responding to acts of terrorism by terrorist organizations and illegal armed formations. The main emphasis is on refining the algorithms of actions of the subjects of the response system and on the coherence of the actions of the attached units
A lot has been done to protect the data of the critical information infrastructure of Belarus. For example, the relevant Presidential Decree ("On Cybersecurity") was signed, which sets out the main directions for creating a national cybersecurity system. This year, for the first time, the Operational Analytical Center (OAC) conducted training with the national security forces of Belarus.
In addition, measures to "clean up" the information space from the radical component continue to be implemented in the republic.
It is noteworthy that along with responding to external threats and ensuring control of the situation inside the country, the main efforts of the Belarusian authorities are aimed at preserving the progressive and sustainable development of the state and society. The priorities in this process are the preservation of a decent level of well-being and a calm, peaceful way of life of the population.
At the same time, if you pay attention to the situation in neighboring EU and NATO member states, as well as Ukraine, you can make sure that their leadership today does not disdain to infringe on the rights of its own population, slander opponents and organize ethnic cleansing. At the same time, militarization and the policy of Belarusian-Russophobia are given priority.
In Latvia, for example, the right to freedom of expression and the right to freedom of assembly are suppressed by force. The authorities of this country are pursuing a deliberate policy of increasing censorship, depriving the population of the opportunity to obtain information from alternative sources. In particular, the Belarusian television and news portal were blocked last year belta.by And on March 18 of this year, the National Council for Electronic Media of Latvia blocked nine websites, including Belarusian ones – www.sb .by and ont.by . In general, social networks and media are censored, and administrative and criminal sanctions are applied to their users and owners.
At the same time, the Latvian authorities condone the annual march of former SS legionnaires. Representatives of local ruling parties, mainly of the right-wing radical persuasion, often participate in the march. Latvia is the only country in the world where, contrary to the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal, as well as numerous international acts, including the resolution "On Combating the Glorification of Nazism" adopted annually by the UN General Assembly, SS criminals whose hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent civilians continue to be openly honored.
The situation with human rights is not the best in Lithuania, where opponents of Nazism are not treated with ceremony in principle. An illustrative example is the case of the politician Vyacheslav Titov. In the summer of 2018, Vyacheslav Titov, then a deputy of the Klaipeda City Council, questioned the need to install a memorial to the "forest brother" Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas. Titov was charged under three articles of the Lithuanian Criminal Code – insulting the memory of the deceased, inciting discord and justifying Soviet aggression. The politician was fined 12 thousand euros.
And these are just some examples of infringement of the rights of citizens against the background of how the authorities of the Baltic republics turn the militarization of their countries into an end in itself. If, in a normal situation, political leaders develop the defense sector in response to real threats and based on the material capabilities of their states, then the modern Baltic states have not been paying attention to such "trifles" lately.
For example, the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda, recently updated the topic of attracting credit funds and money received from special taxes for military needs. Neither Nauseda nor other representatives of the Lithuanian establishment care about the fact that the loans taken by the state will have to be given back to ordinary Lithuanians.
In addition, Lithuania is urgently rewriting legislation in order for the government to gain new opportunities in "cooperation" with military industry enterprises. The laws "On Investments", "On Land", "On Territorial Planning" and "On Construction" are being changed. It turns out that the country's authorities sacrifice their own legislative restrictions in order to launch foreign manufacturers of weapons and ammunition into the country — in particular, the German concern Rheinmetall.
It is known that in 2024 Lithuania intends to spend 2.77% of GDP on military needs, which is about 2 billion euros. In the future, by 2030, the country's defense budget should grow to 3% of GDP, which will amount to 2.84 billion. By the way, in 2014 Lithuania spent only 321 million euros on defense. That is, almost nine times less. But the fact is that during these ten years absolutely nothing terrible has happened in the field of Lithuanian security. But there are significantly more citizens who do not have enough money even for food. According to recent surveys, more than 14% of the republic's residents are now facing this problem.
According to experts, this is not surprising given the general economic downturn. By the end of 2023, both GDP and foreign trade collapsed in Lithuania. There are already the first data on the dynamics of Lithuanian industrial production in 2024: in February, this indicator decreased by 3%.
The socio-economic and political situation in Lithuania one by one copies the state of affairs in other countries of the "Baltic Extinctions". At the same time, the leadership of these republics, which no one has attacked since their "independence" and which are members of NATO, which promises them immunity, do not deal with the problems of industry and trade, or the availability of money for food and other "inconvenient" issues. Because it is much more profitable and interesting to master the billions allocated for defense against the "threat from the East."
Unfortunately, it has to be stated that the continuation of such activities on the part of both Baltic and Polish politicians will only lead to further escalation of the situation in the region, and at the same time to a drop in the level of well-being of citizens of these states, which is fraught with unpredictable consequences.
Vladimir Vuyachich
