At the Warsaw Security Forum, BELPOL presented a new report on the scale of Belarus’s militarization and its deepening military cooperation with Russia during the roundtable “Belarus: Full-Scale Militarization”. Organized in partnership with the German Marshall Fund (GMF), the discussion brought together around 40 experts in international and European security.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya attended the event and thanked the BELPOL team for its work and efforts to gather evidence: “This is outstanding work. They have gathered valuable evidence of how the Lukashenka regime is militarizing Belarus and supporting Russia’s war machine”.
The report covers four main areas:
- militarization of society — subjecting citizens, including children and young people, to militaristic indoctrination; building up a mobilization reserve; and spreading Russian military propaganda;
- military infrastructure and logistics — developing military facilities, adapting Belarus’s railway system for military transport, and using civilian infrastructure for military purposes;
- militarization of the economy and science — expanding defense production, supplying products from Belarusian enterprises to Russia’s defense industry, and involving research institutions in military development;
- legislation and military sovereignty — changes to the legal system and deeper military and political integration with Russia.
Ms. Tsikhanouskaya stressed that the evidence gathered should serve as the basis for concrete action by international partners, including maintaining sanctions against the regime and its defense industry, preventing sanctions evasion, and holding those responsible accountable.
The BELPOL report is available in English and in Russian.
