Reuters / Mikhail Metzel
KEY POINTS
- The document details plans to merge Russia and Belarus politically and economically
- The document was authored by the President Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation
- The FSB and General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces contributed to the strategy document
A leaked internal strategy document from Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s executive office purportedly showed Moscow’s plans to take control of neighboring nation Belarus by 2030, according to media reports.
The internal strategy document outlined the political, economic, humanitarian, trade and military merger of Minsk and Moscow as part of a so-called “Union State of Russia and Belarus,” according to Yahoo News, which obtained a copy of the leaked document.
One Western official with knowledge of the document and cited by the outlet said Russia’s FSB, SVR, GRU and the General Staff of the Armed Forces actively contributed to the Union State plan.
It was also noted that the document was authored by the Presidential Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation, a subdivision of Putin’s Presidential Administration established five years ago. The directorate is currently headed by Alexei Filatov, who reports directly to Dmitry Kozak, the deputy chief of the Presidential Administration.
Officially, the directorate is tasked with “ancillary support for the President’s activity concerning cross-border cooperation on the European track, coordination of federal executive bodies and information and analytical support for the activities of the President and the Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office related to the Directorate’s jurisdiction,” as per the Kremlin’s website.
However, the outlet reported that Filatov’s team was tasked to come up with strategies that would detail Russia’s strategic goals in annexing neighboring countries, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Moldova. Filatov’s team presented the document to Kozak in the fall of 2021, per the report.
Yahoo News said it obtained the document with a consortium of international investigative journalists from Estonian, German, Swedish, Polish, Belarusian, and Ukrainian media organizations as well as the London-based investigative website, Dossier Center.
Belarus served as a launchpad for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, allowing the Russians to enter the country through the Ukrainian-Belarusian border north of Kyiv.
Belarus has yet to send its own troops to the war in Ukraine. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed he will not send his soldiers into Ukraine unless Kyiv is “going to commit aggression” against the country, CNN reported.
That being said, there are fears that Belarus will once again serve as a launching pad for another Russian offensive or that Minsk will join the conflict.
