Belarus regime being what it is, I'd not think that the referendum actually reflects people's opinion, and the result was not predetermined.<p>OTOH I suspect that after the events of 2014 and 2022, Ukraine will remain the last country in history to willingly give up nuclear weapons. Many more countries will think about developing an deploying their own nukes, or at least staying one step away from actually producing them.
Belarus is part of an official Union State with Russia, which is a framework designed to expand to eventually include other nations.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_State" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_State</a>
This is empty gesture, just a symbol of Belarus serfdom. Russian army was already free to enter Belarus using any convenient reason like military exercises so status quo hasn't really changed. Russia might keep nukes in Kaliningrad Oblast so from the security perspective nothing major had changed.
One positive side effect: this result, in the context of an ongoing land war in Europe will finally help to rattle us Europeans out of our traditional resistance to defense and military investment. (I'm both British and German.)<p>Stronger Europe -> stronger NATO -> more options for the Alliance, and for the US to prevent conflict in and out of Europe, since Europeans will shoulder more of the local deterrence burden.<p>Consider also the R&D spinoffs which typically result from military investment. These are dark times -- but longer term, imagine how much civilian technological advancement we can get out of this. This in turn can relieve so many other social and political problems in the West.
Due to journo's lazyness headline became misleading: in Belarus votes are not really counted anymore. Like literally, numbers are taken out of thin air. So it's not like "referendum approves" anything - it's Lukashenka decides
Meanwhile in the EU, specifically in The Netherlands, we had a referendum about the Ukraine EU assoc treaty in 2016.<p>60% of the voters voted against.<p>Guess what happened?<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Dutch_Ukraine%E2%80%93European_Union_Association_Agreement_referendum" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Dutch_Ukraine%E2%80%93Eur...</a>
Belarus is de-facto a part of Russia now.<p>I don't think that Alexander Lukashenko can make any independent decision anymore, except maybe the color of his underpants. He needs Putin for his survival. And he sacrificed his country's independence for it.
It seems that the only option left for Putin is the "nuclear" one (no pun intended) now that the whole world is seeing that the Russian army lost its morale, and its teeth. Old equipment, young soldiers that are harder to brainwash than in the old days. It is fascinating to see for the first time in the modern age what effect modern media consumption and the internet has on a local war.<p>While it is undeniably true that open communication and the internet has corrupted the value of information, it seems that for the first time in 20 years we're witnessing the flip side of this coin as well. It's harder to mobilise people behind a corrupt cause once blood starts flowing. Curious to see how this plays out!<p>And yes - there have been wars for the last 20 years, I know. But if we're honest, from a purely geographical perspective, this is the first war on the European continent in the 2000's.
theres no doubt this was referendum where the votes were not counted.
in the prev online-elections the newly elected president got like 3% approval rating.
<a href="https://www.nhc.no/en/five-facts-about-the-referendum-in-belarus/" rel="nofollow">https://www.nhc.no/en/five-facts-about-the-referendum-in-bel...</a> :<p>"The amendments to this article will make it sound as follows: The Republic of Belarus excludes military aggression from its territory against other states."<p>Either Lukashenko will tell Putin to remove Russian troops from Belarus, or Lukashenko is breaking the new constitution of his own country.
I honestly don't know what Putin hopes to achieve here. Day one, every other country in europe joins NATO and wants nukes too to point at Russia. How does that help him? He's gained the Ukraine and lost the whole rest of the continent...
it's getting really serious right now <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM3SOQQ-7ng" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM3SOQQ-7ng</a>