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Published | 2023/06/18 |
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Status | article incomplete |
Beau says:
Russia's transfer of tactical nukes to Belarus is a foreign policy move mirroring US strategies, aiming at containment and prevention, not immediate military action.
Foreign policy analysts
The full transcript provides additional insight into the historical context of containment policies and the implications of Russia's foreign policy decisions.
Well, howdy there, internet people, it's Bo again.
So today, we are going to talk about Russia and Belarus
and nukes again.
So Russia has said that they have actually
transferred some now.
And they are in Belarus.
Propeted a whole bunch of questions.
We talked about this when it was first hinted at.
So during that video, I said basically Russia
was not really gonna be giving nukes
people. They were going to duplicate a US policy. That turned out to be true in
more ways than I imagined. So Russia didn't actually give Belarus nukes. They
put Russian nukes in Belarus, tactical nukes, and this is kind of what was
expected. It's what the US does too, by the way, just if you're wondering. The
The key thing is that Russia actually, in their announcement about it, kind of flat
out said that no, there still are nukes.
They said that they were put there in case anybody, meaning the West, tried to inflict
a strategic defeat on them.
Again, it's Russia's nukes.
They also said, Putin himself said,
why should we threaten the whole world?
I have already said that the use of extreme measures
is possible in case there is a danger to Russian statehood.
This statement is important for two reasons.
One, not Russian and Belarusian, okay, just Russian.
Again, they're Russian nukes in Belarus.
Belarus has not become a nuclear power.
The other thing that's important in that is that their posture hasn't changed.
Their policy when it comes to strategic weapons has pretty much always been
only if there is a real existential threat
to Russia as a country would they consider using them.
And that still is the policy that they're
kind of operating under here. That's what he said anyway.
Another thing worth noting is that
Putin said that they did this
out of a policy of containment
which is just a wild term to hear.
So
most people probably heard about the domino theory
during the Cold War, which is, you know, if one country became communist, that next country,
you know, neighboring country, would too.
The counter to that theory, the U.S. policy, was called containment, sometimes called the
Truman Doctrine.
It kind of grew out of that.
It was how the U.S. engaged in its soft imperialism, its soft colonialism, that it did post-World
War II. Russia is just kind of flat out saying they're gonna do that at this
point, which is interesting because I would like it noted that containment was
not actually a super successful policy, but it's interesting to see Russian
foreign policy being described in terms from the Cold War. It's also interesting
to see kind of an open admission that Russia is engaging in that same kind of
soft colonialism, soft imperialism. For those who still don't want to see Russia
as the, you know, capitalist oligarchy that it's become, I mean, you even have
Putin saying it at this point. So it's worth it's worth noting that. Does the
transfer of these tactical nukes really mean anything? No, not really. It's a
foreign policy move, not a military one. There's no sign of any preparation or
anything like that. This is about messaging, not actually using them, and
it's important to remember that because anytime, anytime nuclear weapons get
discussed, the US gets nervous, particularly those who are a little
younger and weren't alive during the Cold War where this was just like every
day. So just bear in mind, there's no posture change. They're still
under Russian control, so really this is the equivalent of them moving them from
a warehouse in Moscow to a warehouse in St. Petersburg. It's not a huge difference
in any real geopolitical sense, and it's not a military move, it's a foreign
policy one, it's a political one. So this isn't something I would get particularly
to be alarmed about.
Anyway, it's just a thought.
y'all have a good day.
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