War against Weisnoria: Russians target fictional pro-Western state in show of force

ONLY a few weeks old, the nation of Weisnoria already has its own flag, crest and currency. This “country of dreams” speaks Belarusian and traces its military might back to the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, according to one of its two national anthems. It is also completely fictional.

Weisnoria is one of the imaginary “aggressor countries” thought up for the Belarus-Russia joint war games that began on Thursday, officially involving 12,700 troops. Western pundits estimate there could be as many as 100,000 and fear the exercise might be in preparation for an assault on Nato countries.

The manoeuvres target “illegal armed formations” that aim to undermine Belarus’s sovereignty and are backed by foreign air and naval forces. The other outside countries – Lubinia and Wesbaria – overlap with areas of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland on a Belarusian defence ministry map. But Weisnoria – according to the map – is mostly comprised of the Belarusian region of Grodno, which was part of Poland until the Soviets invaded it in 1939.

It has a higher percentage of Belarusian speakers, Catholics and nationalist voters than the Russian-speaking, Orthodox bulk of the country.

By staging a battle with Weisnoria, Minsk and Moscow appear to be imagining a fight against pro-Western opponents of Alexander Lukashenko’s rule. The mythical enemy in the country’s west has taken on a life of its own since the games begin, as critics of Belarusian president Mr Lukashenko have jokingly rallied to its flag.

Opposition activists promised to hand out Weisnorian visas at a protest against the Zapad exercises, and more than 7,000 people have signed up to receive passports from Weisnoria. True patriots can take an online test to see if they are a “real Weisnorian”. “We’re deeply concerned by the concentration of Belarusian military equipment at Weisnoria’s borders,” its purported ministry of foreign affairs tweeted at Belarus’s actual ministry of foreign affairs. But there’s a grain of truth in every joke, especially in a country that has been ruled for 23 years by “Europe’s last dictator”, as Mr Lukashenko is known. While displaying Russia’s capabilities, the war games have revealed Minsk’s dependence on Moscow.