Belarus may waive its non-nuclear status

Lukashenka's propagandidsts threaten that the country may withdraw from the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances.

This statement was made by official politologist Yury Shautsou. According to him, Minsk may resort to this measure as a response to sanctions against Belarusian officials and oligarchs imposed over human rights violations, electoral fraud and persecution of opposition.

The Belarusian MFA again accused the US and the UK of violating their “commitments to Belarus”. This opinion was expressed in Belarus's statement at the second session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

Belarus stressed that the tripartite security assurances provided in accordance with the 1994 Budapest memorandum in connection with Belarus’s voluntary renunciation of its status as a nuclear power are very important for Belarus.

The Belarusian delegation emphasised that despite the formalised and repeatedly reaffirmed commitments, some nuclear powers ignore them in practice, while continuing to apply economic and political pressure.

The politologist supposes the sanctions against the regime may lead to Belarus's withdrawal from the Budapest Memorandum.

Yury Shautsou speaks about the effect of this step for the country.

“It means Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan may receive a legal ground to return their nuclear status. I am not sure about other countries, but Belarus can definitely count on deployment of Russian nuclear weapons on its territory. Moreover, the Belarusian government already have 2.5 tonnes of nuclear materials, a part of them highly enriched enough to make, for example, a 'dirty bomb', in a short time,” he said in an interview with Rosbalt news agency.