Single Air Defence System

Belarus’s new Russian arms: what Minsk has given in exchange

In an interview published on 23 February, Belarusian defence minister Andrei Raukou announced the forthcoming purchases of state-of-the-art Russian weaponry. He specifically mentioned the Su-30SM fighter aircraft and 120mm Nona-M1 heavy mortars. Earlier, on 4 February, armament director of the...

19 October 2016

Belarus-Russia disintegration, strengthening air force, Belarusian congress – Ostrogorski Centre digest

In October the Ostrogorski Centre participated in the Sixth International Congress of Belarusian Studies, the largest annual conference on Belarus in the social sciences and humanities. Its analysts presented analytical papers on Belarus-Russia disintegration and non-formal education in Belarus. It...

20 May 2016

US Missile-Defence System in Europe Increases Strategic Importance of Belarus

As NATO started to construct its European missile defence system, Moscow on 16 May held talks with Minsk on its planned response. “We have an identical approach to the missile defence system,” insisted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. His...

12 April 2016

Does the single air defence system bring Belarus closer to Russia?

On 6 April Moscow declared that the agreement on establishment of a Single Air Defence System of Belarus and Russia had been implemented. That announcement downplayed the contradictory situation around military cooperation between the two countries and the question of...

26 November 2015

Belarus-Russia Military Cooperation: Can the Kremlin Dictate the Terms?

On 26 October Russian President Putin planned for a discussion about the plans for establishing a Russian airbase in Belarus with his Belarusian colleague Lukashenka. They did not meet. Instead, a Russian general told the press that the base plans...

27 October 2014

The Russian Air Force Base in Belarus: Getting the Facts Straight

Last week Chief of the Russian Air Force Viktor Bondarev announced that a Russian airbase would be established in Babruysk in 2016. An article from the Moscow Times on expanding the Russian air force presence abroad, subsequently reprinted in...

6 September 2013

Russia Refuses To Supply Weapons To Belarus

On 20 August, Alexandr Lukashenka held a conference on the future priorities for Belarus' armed forces.He proclaimed that “while analysing recent conflicts and wars, we understood that the most important thing for...