Raukou: Bringing Up Troops To Border Of Belarus Is Russian Federation’s Internal Affair

The Defense Minister continues to ignore the aggressive actions of the eastern neighbor.

Andrei Raukou commented on the possible occupation of Belarus by Russian troops. He claims that the redeployment of huge amount of military equipment into our country to participate in the exercises "Zapad-2017" does not bear any threat. The Defense Minister commented on these statements in his interview to SB.

The Minister stressed that the exercises "Zapad-2017" do not threat the sovereignty of Belarus "by definition." Absolutely everything, including the number of troops and military equipment from Russia, is agreed with the Belarusian side. "All the troop movements are also controlled by us", – Raukou said. He noted that the exercises do not bear any threat to western countries, because they have a defensively oriented character.

The redeployment of Russian military units to the border with Belarus doesn’t put Raukou on his guard. He says that it is "the Russians’ internal affair."

Earlier, the Belarusian National Committee proposed a program to strengthen the country's defensive capacity, for which Raukou responded rudely.