Putin came to the rescue with financing and promise of troops. so over the last few months lukashenko let russia use his territory as a staging ground for invading ukraine. belarus also consistently voted with russia in the u.n. but belarus hasn t entirely acted as a russian vas vasil. like the central asian countries, it has recognized the breakaway donbas republics and more importantly ruled out sending its own tornados to ukraine. think about how this is different from the heyday of the soviet union. in moscow s misadventure in afghanistan, the kremlin could mobilize material and manpower from across the soviet public, and crossing the crowd of 1968, the military received support from ball garra, poland and hungary. the real story here and maybe the divide between the ruler and the public in these pro moscow states, for example, they again