simple schoolboy wrote:RE: Belarus, the candidate that was the true winner of the election is now in Lithuania*.
So, hooray, Belarus is probaly still nominally independent! Most of the green men are domestically sourced. Organic, free range, Minsk riot police/ special military units, not imported Russian factory farmed green men, this is an important distinction.
*Poor gits thought NATO's assurance was worth a damn. On the other hand, there is a Lithuanian armory churning out 62 gr 5.56.
Perchance I was too pessimistic, but after what happened to Ukraine, its hard to believe the Russians would allow another 'color revolution' without some significant counter action.
Unfortunately, Belarus ended up with a lot of high end military related electronics and optics factories. Unless Russia has more recently developed more of these industries domestically, they rely on Belarus for the defense supply chain, just as Ukraine was an important supplier for certain aviation components.