Eastern Europe’s Strategic Balance Is Shifting (From RealClearWorld)

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on July 19, a conversation she described as very friendly and warm, and one that seemed to promise meaningful U.S. action on Belarus in the near future. Blinken is the most senior U.S. government official to meet with Tsikhanouskaya. The meeting is the clearest signal of Washington’s support of her against Belarus’ authoritarian president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, who is being propped up by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Given that the support from the U.S. government for Belarusian opposition and civil society has now been broadcast to the rest of the world, it seems possible that the strategic balance to NATO’s east, near Poland and the Baltics, could change.  I have written more on this subject here.