The Kremlin qualified Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s claim he requested Russian weapons from Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 16. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met with Lukashenko in Minsk on Sept. 16, likely to implement military cooperation concessions Lukashenko made to Putin during their Sept. 14 meeting in Sochi. Lukashenko said he asked Putin for weapons to “strengthen the Union State plan” on Sept. 16. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov qualified Lukashenko’s statement in a response to a reporter, saying Lukashenko did not ask Putin for a “weapons delivery” “in the way you [the reporter] phrased.” The Kremlin rarely qualifies its denials of claims by other actors based on the language used by individual reporters. Peskov’s attention to avoiding a full denial but disputing the reporters’ question if Lukashenko requested a “weapons delivery” indicates the Kremlin is attempting to shift Lukashenko’s framing.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with his Belarus' counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi on Sept. 14, 2020.
