The Biden administration is urging U.S. citizens in Belarus to depart the country immediately and warned against travel there in a statement published Monday.

The updated travel warning comes after bordering countries Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have stepped up security along the border over concerns about Russian Wagner mercenary forces exiled in the country.

The State Department, in its warning, encouraged Americans still in Belarus to depart the country immediately and categorized the country as a Level 4 risk, the highest security warning.

  • Rapidcreek@reddthat.com
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    11 months ago

    Didn’t one of the Proud Boys run there rather than face prison for Jan 6? Looks like a big oops.

    • Echo Dot
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      11 months ago

      Seems like there are better places without extradition treaties. Warmer and more tropical places. The hell they go to Belarus for?

      • lasagna@programming.dev
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        11 months ago

        Good luck getting to stay in most of those places. They’re happy to have tourists, not residents. Unless you have a lot of money to open a business. Proud little boys don’t strike me as wealthy.

        • Gork@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          What are the chances the Proud Boy will even make an attempt to learn Belarusian? My prediction is close to 0%. Probably would expect others to learn English instead.

    • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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      11 months ago

      There’s always journalists, business people, tourists, and visiting family knocking around in these kinds of situations. This is the US Embassy officially warning those folks that they are in danger and that the US will have limited recourse if they find themselves in trouble.

    • Hank@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Maybe it’s meant to mainly fuck with Russian intelligence? Don’t forget that we’re practically at war with them.

  • lntl@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    I’m a little surprised this warning wasn’t issued last year. Better late than never?

    • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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      11 months ago

      They’d be stupid if they weren’t. There’s a hot war involving a global / regional power happening on their border and the best way to keep it on the other side is to be prepared to repel any and all boarders.

    • blue_zephyr@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      That would be the most stupid military decision since the most recent Ukraine invasion.

    • rhsJack@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Umm…I hate to be the one to break it to you: see, there is this country called Ukraine. Small place. Next to Poland. Also next to Russia. Ukraine and Russia are currently, how should I put it…they are having a MASSIVE FUCKING WAR rn. So their neighbors are preparing for the inevitability it will spill over into Europe and Middle East.

  • Kultronx@lemmygrad.ml
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    11 months ago

    Now if they just could depart every other country on the planet, that would be great.

    • SaakoPaahtaa@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Stop with the goddamn nuke psychosis. rusian nukes aint worth shit. Be more scared of meteorites hitting the earth or dinosaur comeback but not rusian meme weapons

        • Chaotic Entropy
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          11 months ago

          America knows that Russian nuclear silos are in as poor a state as American nuclear silos, if not worse. Like in the US where only one wrench is shared between multiple silos and they ship it back and forth. Working in a silo is a dead end gig.

          The problem with weapons you never intend to use is that you stop giving a shit about their maintenance, or just steal their budget for something else/yourself. Sub launched nukes are the real threat at this stage, of which there are far fewer.

          As an example: https://time.com/6212698/nuclear-missiles-icbm-triad-upgrade/

          • Fosheze@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Isn’t most of the US nuclear arsenal on subs? I mean we have 14 SSBN Ohio class subs each of which has 20 Trident II missiles each of which can have up to 12 100kt warheads. Thats up to potentially 3,360 100kt nuclear warheads ready to be lauched at a moments notice. If that isn’t enough to get the job done then I don’t think a few silos are going to make much of a difference.

            • Chaotic Entropy
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              11 months ago

              Those have been in service for 30-40 years apiece at this stage, and only a portion of those will be at sea at any given time. Still a terrifying amount of destructive power to be sure though, for whatever “the job” turns out to be in the end.

              Silos are still deemed a critical part of the nuclear triad, along with air and sea.

          • mihor@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            You realize that Russia also has the latest gen. of mobile launchers, right? Google Topol-M.

            • Chaotic Entropy
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              11 months ago

              There are only about 18 active Topol-M vehicles in a state of service, it’s the newer Yars launchers you have to worry about now! But likewise, there are an estimated 150 manufactured, in some form of service, unknown levels of readiness. The Russian military has been embezzling swathes of its budget at all levels, I wouldn’t be confident that this too isn’t also at a poor state of readiness.

              China is the one making all new investments in a huge nuclear capability, they’re the ones to watch really.

        • GreenMario@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          Yes.

          It’s suicide for them if they do. We know our nukes work.

          Rather not let nuclear dictators have free reign on the world because “OMG they may nuke us”. Otherwise give em the keys to the world right now and surrender.

          There’s an old American proverb: LIVE FREE OR DIE

          • Echo Dot
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            11 months ago

            You don’t have a very good grasp of reality do you.

            There’s two possible outcomes here and neither of them are enslavement at the hands of the Russians. How are they going to do that, they can’t invade a country one 10th the size of the United States what are they going to do? But what they might do is launch missiles, nuclear or otherwise, in fit of peak.

            So the two outcomes are, they either do nothing, or they nuke us. There’s no scenario where they’re going to invade.