alexander lukashenko rules belarus, and he is dubbed europe s lasting tatea, he has been defined by russia s president, vladimir putin, transforming belarus into a near vassal state. he helped launched his 2022 invasion of ukraine, and using belarusian skies to bomb ukrainians. translator: we will never be enemies of russia and never look disapprovingly of russia and this is the country and people closest to us, and while we are in power we will stick to this
his next meal as well, and try to stay away from balconies. because it s quite likely that putin will go on an execution spree trying to solidify his leadership. there s a lot of moving parts right now in moscow and nearby. that s exactly what i want to ask about next, peter. we ve seen what happens to putin s opponents, joe said it, don t go near any balconies. do you think putin is going to go after prigozhin next? i wouldn t drink any t, i wouldn t sit down with any people you don t know, there s so many things that could be done and he is of course a very vulnerable place. belarus is a vassal state of respite, anything putin wants to do in melrose he can do. we have a prigozhin i would certainly be worried about that. i would make sure i had a food taster. but the question is why hasn t done that already. he has exposed, he exposed him
began, six days and months ago russian president lukashenko has been one of vladimir putin s few close allies, but their relationship goes back further. nic robertson has more. alexander lukashenko rules belarus like a personal fiefdom president since its creation in 1994 he gets little opposition. dubbed last dick tear lukashenko has come to be defined by his fealty to russian president vladimir putin transforming belarus into a near vassal state. putin used lukashenko and belarus to help launch his 2022 invasion of ukraine, driving tanks over belarus s border
he russia i mean belarus is essentially an extension of russia. yeah, what i don t understand is if prigozhin goes into exile that s not the word that was used but if he goes to live in belarus which is a vassal state of russia, essentially, and he has maybe has a bunch of body guards around him, a bunch of thugs around him. but if he doesn t have his 20,000 wagner fighters he s very vulnerable. anybody can be taken out in belarus no matter how nice their house is and how secure their private bunker is. well, exactly. and as we ve seen putin doesn t hesitate to reach out and touch people that are even in the west, u.k., even the united states. so why he would agree to go to belarus which is not a safe
the niewp nuclear threat, of navigation interference and what have you. the question is, the solution to the problem is to change the status quo. like a general once said [speaking in native tongue] which means the circumstances not being favorable, we have to change the circumstances. in this case, the change has to be the regime at the end of the day. maria: well, thousand we re seeing a new cozying up to china. you had the leader in iran travel to beijing to meet with xi jinping. what are your thoughts on this apparently stronger relationship between iran and china? i don t know if you can call it a relationship more than it is out of desperation, allowing iran to become practically a vassallal state to china. vassal state to china. imagine what an american would feel if tomorrow they would auction off mount rushmore or the hawaiian islands. how would you feel as a citizen of this country? it would be outrageous. that s what they re trying to do. they re trying to sell off kish