Putin prepares to send in the troops

Sometimes, Vladimir Putin just can’t help himself. Russian coverage of the popular revolution in neighbouring Belarus has been unusually even-handed, perhaps reflecting a belief that strongman Alexander Lukashenko might be on the ropes. Then Putin, having been quiet about Belarus for so long, used an interview with a tame TV journalist to drop a bombshell: a reserve force has been established that could intervene.

Apparently Lukashenko had asked him ‘to create a reserve group of law enforcement personnel’ which could be deployed if ‘the situation becomes uncontrollable, when extremist elements… overstep the mark.’

He magnanimously continued that ‘we came to the conclusion that now it is not necessary, and I hope that it will never be necessary, ’but the implication is that if things turn ugly, Russia is willing and able to get uglier.

Why the escalation in rhetoric? We certainly shouldn’t assume that it signals that he is planning to intervene. After all, this would be a dangerous move with little support inside his own country, that would turn the Belarusian people against Russia.