They went skiing. They rode snowmobiles. And they lauded their “strategic partnership and alliance,” pledging to deepen integration between their two countries.
But after Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka met for six hours in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on February 22 and spoke again by telephone the next day, it remained unclear where this troubled and often dysfunctional relationship between Europe’s last two dictators actually stands.
According to a confidential unpublished report by the Minsk-based Center for Strategic and Foreign Policy Studies, the summit “did not yield significant practical results.” But that does not mean there is nothing to see here. In fact, quite the contrary.
The dynamic between Putin and Lukashenka, two men who reportedly despise each other on a personal level, is extremely fluid, turbulent, and opaque. But Russia’s geopolitical goals in Belarus remain constant and Moscow will continue to pursue them, with or without Lukashenka.