by Peter Zeihan on April 10, 2023

Today’s video comes to you from the shores of Lake Hawea with the famed Dingle Burn arm behind me.

Anytime Russia and nukes are mentioned in the same sentence…the world pays attention. But does moving your nukes to a new place inherently change your military posture?

In the case of Belarus, the answer is no. Russia already has nukes in Kaliningrad (further west than Belarus), so this isn’t “expanding” Putin’s military reach. Additionally, the Belarusian infrastructure sucks, so these nukes will likely sit around and collect dust (unless they’re sold on the open market, but that’s an entirely different conversation).

So what does moving Russian nukes to Belarus accomplish? Putin gets to bang on his chest a little, rally up the domestic nationalism machine, and ensure the internal political situation is still propping him up. As for international security issues, this doesn’t move the needle…at least for now.

Please click above to watch video