Putin and Lukashenko prepare Antarctica date amid tensions with West

Despots Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko have organized a date to go to Antarctica, amid broiling tensions with the West.

The pair, respective leaders of Russia and Belarus, have been sat collectively at a gathering held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday, the place they spoke with Russian polar scientists from the Vostok analysis station, situated near the South Pole, through video-chat. 

The scientists have opened a brand new wintering facility on the station, the development of which was described as ‘Russia’s flagship venture within the Antarctic area’ by Russian state information company TASS. 

During the decision, Lukashenko, 69, was apparently so impressed by the brand new facility that he requested Putin, 71, to hitch him on a future journey to the bottom. 

Lukashenko stated: ‘Let’s go a while? Looks fascinating!’ 

Putin, much less enthusiastically, responded: ‘Yes, okay.’ 

Though the 2 despots could also be organising catch-up classes, tensions between Belarus and Russia, and the West, have been rising. 

During the Saint Petersburg go to, which noticed Putin communicate at a memorial to mark 80 years for the reason that finish of the Nazis’ seige of Leningrad, the identify of town on the time, The Russian chief ramped up his assaults towards Kyiv, claiming that Volodymr Zelensky’s regime ‘glorifies Hitler’s accomplices, the SS.’

Putin’s claims come simply three days after Lukashenko’s personal authorities launched an investigation into 20 unbiased analysts and political commentators now exterior the nation and accused of conspiring to grab energy and promote extremism, following a sequence of searches and detentions of individuals, a lot of who have been as soon as jailed for political dissent towards Belarus’s long-serving president Alexander Lukashenko.

One human rights group stated greater than 150 folks have been affected by the police motion.

The United States, which has lengthy imposed sanctions on Belarus alongside the European Union, denounced the most recent punitive measures.

Belarus’s Investigative Committee stated the analysts ‘took an energetic half within the improvement and implementation of the idea of damaging actions aimed toward harming nationwide safety’.

The group consists of political commentators and economists in addition to officers linked to exiled opposition chief Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, overwhelmed by Lukashenko within the 2020 election.

‘The regime is attempting to push the nation into an data bubble,’ Tsikhanouskaya, who lives in neighbouring Lithuania, wrote on Telegram.

‘The wave of repression towards analysts and specialists is just revenge towards those that actually assess the scenario in Belarus and suggest actual methods out of the disaster.’

The human rights group Viasna (Spring) stated on its web site that not less than 157 folks had been topic to detentions and questioning. Most, it stated, had been launched or charged with minor offences, however some confronted prices of abetting extremism.

The US State Department stated Washington ‘condemns the Lukashenko regime’s latest raids [and] detentions’ and vowed to carry the federal government accountable ‘for its harsh inner repression in addition to for its ongoing assist for Russia’s conflict of aggression towards Ukraine.’

In energy since 1994, Lukashenko staged a brand new crackdown on dissent after stamping out unprecedented demonstrations towards what his opponents say was his rigged re-election in 2020.

Putin backed him in that confrontation and Lukashenko allowed Russia to make use of its territory as a staging submit for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Lukashenko, depending on Moscow for political and financial assist, agreed final 12 months to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons in his nation on Russia’s western border. But he has rejected any notion of committing troops to the conflict in Ukraine.