"This Is Evidenced By An Ironic Remark By Si Lukashenko"

• 6.07.2026, 8:26

The dictator's visit to Beijing is a mere formality.

Political commentator Sergei Naumchik spoke about the purpose of the Belarusian leader’s visit to China.

— Two versions were discussed regarding Lukashenko’s visit to Beijing. The first is that he flew there to seek refuge amid the escalation of tensions with Kyiv and Putin’s efforts to drag him into the war,” writes Navumchik. — The second: he brought Xi a message from Putin regarding the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons—either against Ukraine or against NATO countries.

...To consult on the use of nuclear weapons, Putin does not need Lukashenko’s services as an envoy or courier. And if we imagine that a nuclear strike would be launched from Belarusian territory (which is quite likely), Lukashenko would find out about it five minutes before the missiles are launched. He’d probably have time to get down to the bunker. But I doubt he’d make it to the airport.

The escalation with Ukraine has been building for a week, but visits to the leader of a superpower aren’t planned in a week—or even a month.

It seemed that the graduation of Lukashenko’s son Nikolai from Peking University would put an end to the speculation—but no.

The situation most likely unfolded as follows. The graduation ceremony had clearly been known about for half a year, and Lukashenko—given his relationship with his youngest son—clearly could not miss it. That’s when the visit was planned and the meeting with Xi was arranged—the Chinese leader had no reason not to spend an hour and a half meeting with Lukashenko; why not meet?

The meeting was purely formal, as evidenced by Xi’s first ironic remark: “What, straight from Minsk?” (To assume that Xi didn’t know where his counterpart had flown in from—you’d either have to be an idiot yourself or consider Xi to be one. Xi is no idiot.)

As for the talk of “ironclad friendship” and “support for sovereignty”—these are traditional phrases used by Chinese leaders, who have long adopted a “soft power” strategy in both economics and politics.

That’s all.

I’ll add that if Putin had warned Lukashenko about a nuclear strike involving Belarus, Lukashenko would have truly seen the gates of hell before him and his own very swift and inevitable demise.

In such a situation, it’s plausible that he would have flown to Xi for help—but aside from talk of “sovereignty” and “ironclad friendship,” we would also have heard something very measured, such as “the inadmissibility of using nuclear arsenals in conflicts.”

China—and here we must give it credit—does indeed reject the possibility of nuclear aggression and refrains from using the kind of rhetoric that has become the norm for the Kremlin’s thugs.

It’s also worth adding: the fact that information about Lukashenko’s flight to his son’s graduation ceremony did not leak to either the expert community or the so-called opposition—testifies to the absolute secrecy of both the Foreign Ministry and the state apparatus.

In a democratic country, of course, this would not have been a secret (assuming that the leader of such a country would have used Air One for this purpose). And even in semi-democratic states, information from the very top spread instantly—I remember this from Belarus in the early 1990s.

And even the USSR was no exception: in December 1976, the fact that the plane from Switzerland—where Korvalan had been exchanged for Bukovsky—did not fly to Moscow but landed in Minsk, and “Comrade Lucha” was taken to Zaslavl for a few days of medical treatment—was known, it seems, by every other family of Party officials; in any case, I learned about it from my father in Vitebsk the very next day, if not that same evening.

Even though this was a secret operation, and Korvalan’s arrival was officially announced only after Leonid Ilyich had embraced him—receiving a wonderful living gift on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

And all this means only that the current state apparatus is completely controlled by the special services, and the atmosphere of fear within it is significantly greater than in society at large.