As he invaded Ukraine 25 days ago, killing tens of thousands of people already, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has been largely and rightfully isolated in international politics.
On March 2, in a vote of the United Nations General Assembly, only five countries voted against the famous resolution to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – Russia and four other dictatorships – Belarus, Syria, North Korea, and Eritrea.
All four of those other dictators are run by autocrats whose survival has been aided by the Putin regime.
Putin’s Best Bud Dictator Highly Complicit in Devastation of Ukraine
Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, kept Belarus in a state very similar to the communism in the former Soviet Union.
In 2020-2021, as the society in Belarus tried to depose him with mass street protests, Lukashenko’s regime and survival have been fully dependent on Putin’s support.
On February 24, when Putin invaded Ukraine with nearly 200,000 Russian troops, a large share of those entered from Belarus. Belarus’ border with Ukraine is about 100 miles north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
For the time being, Belarusian troops haven’t participated in the attack on Ukraine, in spite of Putin seemingly pressuring Lukashenko for that.
However, Belarus remains a huge attack base for the Russian military, including by handling huge numbers of wounded Russian soldiers and the corpses of Moscow’s troops killed in action by Ukrainian defenders.
In a fresh interview for a foreign media, the Belarusian dictator spoke very highly of Putin and seemingly condoned the invasion of Ukraine.
Lukashenko also tried to dispel rumors that Putin ordered the horrifying invasion of Ukraine because he may have lost his mind during the past two years of isolation, amid COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
Lukashenko says "Putin is more alive than anyone else", "will survive us all", "in top shape", "never been more in his right mind", "will only catch a cold at our funerals"… pic.twitter.com/Uze4fKAZRW
— Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) March 19, 2022
Putin and his puppet stooge Belarus president Lukashenko claiming they were forced to enter the war: “If we didn’t assault them preemptively, they would have assaulted our forces .. So we weren’t the ones who started this assault – our consciences are clear.” pic.twitter.com/Ve8lDt2BV3
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) March 12, 2022
the funniest Belarusian-Russian interaction in this decades was when Lukashenko gave Putin 4 sacks of potatos and Putin is obviously looking like "wtf do i do with these" pic.twitter.com/eeS86bh2Lt
— Sharon 🌹🏗️ 🚰 ✝️ 🛡️ (@Sharon_Kuruvila) March 18, 2022
The scenes of devastation in Ukraine are gut-wrenching pic.twitter.com/JUsz26D03Q
— DCP (@PurpleBaptist) March 19, 2022
Putin Will ‘Catch Cold at All Our Funerals’
Thus, Putin’s dictator best bud declared the Moscow tyrant is in “better shape than ever,” completely sane, and healthy in an interview he gave to Japanese TV station TBS, as cited by The Daily Mail.
Lukashenko used the interview to tell the West it should get out of its head “this stupidity/fiction” that Putin is “insane”.
Putin’s dictator buddy’s comment is actually as assessment by British analyst Prof. Mark Galeotti. He cautioned in a newspaper article that Putin isn’t mad, but just acting like the KGB gangster he’s always been.
Against the backdrop of Lukashenko’s praise for Putin, Vladimir Ashurkov, a close ally of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, told the Independent the war in Ukraine is going to end the Putin regime in Russia within five years.
In the meantime, Ukrainian authorities announced in the city of Mariupol, the Russians bombed an art school where about 400 civilians had been sheltering; for the time being, it is unknown if there are any survivors.
The #Belarusian military began to use the same rapid recognition system (red tape) that the “LPR” and “DPR” forces used in the early days of the invasion of #Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/PpeQCTxfEf
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 19, 2022
⚡️Ukraine's General Staff: Putin transfers troops from Far East to Belarus.
The troops are being moved from Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in order to make up for casualties in Ukraine, the General Staff said.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 19, 2022
Belarusians really demonstrate they are not with Putin&Lukashenka by fighting for Ukraine:
"We,Belarusians, members of the Anti-Lukashenko, pro-democracy resistance, joined all our forces to resist Russian aggression, and our Belarusian Batallion will defend Kyiv with our lives!" pic.twitter.com/Ypk4wbsG1r— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) March 16, 2022