In 1999, the "eternal rulers" Putin and Lukashenko signed the "Treaty on the Creation of the Union State." Besides merging Russia and Belarus into a "unified and indestructible union," they planned cooperation in several areas, including energy. As a result, in 2011, Belarus, with Russian credit, began building its own nuclear power plant, which it has been using for commercial purposes since 2020.
However, this year, Lukashenko "took it to the next level" – he proposed building a second nuclear power plant on Belarusian territory, arguing that it would help meet the increasing demand for electricity not only in Belarus but also in the Bryansk region and temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, which the Belarusian dictator referred to as "new regions of Russia."
However, the actual necessity of constructing a new nuclear power plant is quite questionable, as after the first plant started operating, Minsk significantly reduced its gas purchases from Russia, cutting them by 5 billion cubic meters per year, effectively partially freeing itself from dependency on Russia in this area. Furthermore, Belarus does not have a shortage of electricity generation capacity; on the contrary, it has a surplus. So, in reality, Lukashenko is once again "covering his bases" and wants to have the option, in the event of drastic geopolitical changes, to export electricity to the EU in the future, including through Ukraine.
Moreover, Belarus still has unused Russian credit funds totaling 10 billion dollars. So, in order not to repay this money, Lukashenko is offering a "friendly Russian atomic" a new project disguised as "care for the ally."
