На русском языке:
Мнение. Егор Лебедок о Военной доктрине Союзного государства
На беларускай мове:
Меркаванне. Ягор Лебядок пра Вайсковую дактрыну Саюзнай дзяржавы
Columnist Yahor Lebiadok in his Telegram channel analyzes the speech of Sergey Shoygu and the Military Doctrine of the Union State, which in fact is not new. Here are his words unchanged.
Today, at the meeting of the joint board of the Ministries of Defense of Russia and Belarus, Sergey Shoygu, after listing NATO activities near the borders of Belarus and Russia, said: «In the current conditions, we are forced to take retaliatory measures. A new Military Doctrine of the Union State has been prepared, which is planned to be approved in the near future at the next meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State». If you look at Shoygu’s speech, this doctrine is mentioned after the words about the need for retaliatory measures, with a hint that this is a response, but still in his presentation it wasn’t necessarily read as a response, it could be a new section of the report. But Russian propaganda (TASS, RIA, Channel One, etc.) began to present the doctrine as a pronounced retaliatory measure, and after it began to copy the Belarusian. For example, «according to him, one of these measures is the new Military Doctrine of the Union State», «this is one of the responses to the threat posed by the West, as well as to political and economic pressure», etc. This is a Russian propaganda classic in presenting the aggressiveness of the West, when you need to justify your body movements (omitting, of course, from what events and in what year NATO began to intensify spending, intelligence, operational training, to create mixed BTG with countries outside the bloc, etc.). However, in this case, it is not about justification, but simply about using the old occasion to reinforce the propaganda agenda.
In fact, the «new» military doctrine of the so-called Union State is not new and is not related to the events of 2020-2021. The draft doctrine was approved by V. Putin’s order of December 19, 2018 №390-rp and the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of November 13, 2018 №813. Both legal acts contain a paragraph on the subsequent submission of the draft doctrine for approval/consideration by the Supreme State Council or the Council of Ministers of the Union State. But there has been no meeting of the GHS since then, of course, and the military doctrine has not been adopted. Whether the doctrine will be signed at the upcoming Supreme Council of State is a question that depends on the signing of integration maps too. But even without this document, the Regional Grouping of Troops (Forces) of Belarus and Russia is successfully applied, without limiting to such normative legal acts, as well as other military cooperation between Belarus and Russia can be carried out without this document or using the current doctrine of 2001.
Protocols were signed at the board to extend the validity of agreements on the deployment of Russian military facilities on the territory of Belarus — the node of the Baranovichi missile attack warning system and the Vileika radio station of the Navy. These protocols also had a long way to be signed. The Russian government in February 2021 signed orders approving protocols on the extension of agreements on the procedure for maintaining the Baranovichi hub and the Vileika radio station. In June 2021, the main agreements expired. In August 2021, Lukashenka signed a decree approving protocols on the extension of agreements. But only today it was signed by the defense ministers.
Today, the defense ministers of two countries approved a plan for bilateral military cooperation for 2022, which includes 139 measures in various areas of joint activities of defense ministries. This is less than it was planned in 2021 — 160 events (which is understandable, this year the West-2021 strategic training sessions were held), but more than planned in 2020 — 120 events.
Shoygu also said that «priority attention is paid to the regional grouping of troops of the armed forces of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation, as well as the development of joint military systems». Most likely, we are talking about the build-up of the Russian Air Force and Air Defense in Belarus under the sign of combat training centers or in other ways, and possibly about changing the order of functioning of the Unified Air Defense System of Belarus and Russia in peacetime and wartime.
