Lukashenko, who has become Putin's puppet, announced that Belarus would retract its pledge not to have nuclear weapons.

Doing this publicly is a way to make it act as a threat. For instance, he could make vague threats against NATO.

In addition, next time the Belarusians try to kick out Lukashenko, he will be able to threaten to nuke Belarus's cities. But I suppose he will not actually do that.

Trumputin canceled the IRBM treaty, with which both the US and Russia agreed not to station intermediate-range ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads in Europe. Would Putin like to reestablish that treaty? If so, it would make sense for the US to demand that Belarus pledge to continue not to have nuclear weapons as part of the treaty.

Has Putin shown a wish to resume that treaty? I have to wonder whether Trumputin canceled it as a favor to Putin — to give him the benefit of getting out of that treaty, while dumping on the US the onus of terminating it.