Belarus Highlights Contribution to Russia’s Defense Industrial Base

As the United States and allies met in Turkey for the NATO summit, Russia hosted its own parley aimed at strengthening a technological bloc to compete with the West.

Addressing the INNOPROM exhibition, which showcased technological advances and economic cooperation among participating countries, Aleksandr Turchin, prime minister of key Russian ally Belarus, highlighted his country’s push toward technological sovereignty in key defense-related areas.

For Belarus, which has been part of the Union State framework, a supranational initiative launched in 1999 aimed at economic, defense, and foreign policy integration with Russia, technological sovereignty counterintuitively means reliance on Russia. Turchin spoke to the role of joint government work, close ties, and increasing trade as drivers for mutual technological security, noting that “the Belarusian-Russian high level of integration and cooperation is capable of giving the same full cycle of production without borders.”

Belarus Ties Tech Strategy to Russian Efforts

Belarus has long demonstrated its commitment to technological and industrial cooperation by participating in the INNOPROM expo since 2012, even hosting the 2025 exhibition in Minsk. Turchin emphasized Belarus’s goal of reducing foreign dependence through import substitution — a topic he and Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov also discussed on the sidelines of the expo. Meanwhile, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin touted Russia and Belarus’s joint development of a microchip manufacturing machine in his address.

This support builds on the country’s new Digital Belarus 2026-2030 strategy, released in December 2025, which calls for expanding AI development and adoption, modernizing digital infrastructure, and increasing the use of domestically developed technologies. Belarus further demonstrated technology’s role in its national security strategy at its June national security exhibition. At the event, one U.S.- and EU-sanctioned Russian participant company organized a unified Belarusian-Russian exhibit highlighting their cooperation and the joint technological achievements in cybersecurity, weaponry, medical support, and other capabilities.

Belarus Actively Aiding Russian Aggression Against Ukraine

Belarus provides chassis, optics, microelectronics, and other components for numerous Russian weapon systems, with volumes surging since 2022, as Russia has boosted production to sustain its invasion of Ukraine. Belarus is currently constructing an artillery ammunition plant that will likely supply the Russian military. The country is also a conduit for Russian illicit procurement of Western microelectronics and other controlled goods.

Belarus allowed Russian forces to use its territory in Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, continuing to aid Moscow’s war effort by supplying Russia with artillery ammunition and hosting devices that facilitate Russian drone barrages. Similarly, Russian and Belarusian security services maintain close cooperation, and Belarusian-linked cyber groups have supported Russian cyber and information operations targeting Ukraine and NATO members. They have conducted espionage campaigns against Ukraine’s government and military, targeting government and critical infrastructure entities in Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia as well.

U.S. Must Apply Stronger Pressure on Belarusian Regime

The advancement of Belarus’s AI and technology sectors also strengthens Russia due to their military and security partnership. Washington has recognized this relationship by imposing multiple sanctions on Belarusian defense entities and technology firms, including through two 2021 executive orders.

However, in 2025 and 2026, Washington lifted economic restrictions on President Alexander Lukashenko’s personal assets and some Belarusian financial and potash companies as part of a prisoner swap deal between Minsk and Washington.

While the sanctions easing is an important form of leverage in the U.S. diplomatic arsenal, as long as Minsk is aligned with and enabling Moscow, the United States needs to maintain its sanctions and export controls to avoid creating loopholes that Russia can exploit. As Belarusian state-owned enterprises continue to participate in supply chains that provide Russian military with American microchips, the administration should build on existing sanctions designations to avoid asymmetries between restrictions on Russian and Belarusian entities. As Minsk becomes increasingly integrated into Moscow’s defense industrial and technological ecosystem, American efforts to deny Russia access to advanced technologies must apply to Belarus with equal force.

Sophie McDowall is a research associate for the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where Kateryna “Katya” Kvasha is an intern. For more analysis from the authors and FDD, subscribe HERE. Follow Sophie on X @SophieMcDowall. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_CCTI. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.