Agreed Kelldor, with all the points of your post.

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“The Biden administration plans to hold talks with Moscow early next year and will marshal allies toward a plan for sanctions ... A senior U.S. diplomat said Tuesday that the Biden administration’s plan to address Russia’s escalating military aggression in and around Ukraine centers on new talks it plans to orchestrate with Moscow early next year ... ‘While we pursue diplomacy, we must also pursue deterrence, and we’re working on a coordinated and comprehensive approach’ ... Donfried’s comments represent the first specifics the administration has offered publicly since Russia issued a series of demands last week of NATO – many of which partner countries consider ludicrous”
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/a...llies-seek-clarity-on-threats-to-ukraine

Moscow made a series of very serious demands and requested an “urgent” response, and Washington is transparently delaying while preparing further escalation, as Moscow anticipated. Russia is therefore likely to now proceed to the next step of its plan.

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“A Belarus court on Wednesday handed two-decade prison sentences to a group of anarchists on terrorism and illegal arms charges after a closed-door trial in the authoritarian country. Sergei Romanov and Igor Olinevich were sentenced to 20 years in prison, while Dmitry Rezanovich and Dmitry Dubovsky were handed 19 and 18 years respectively. They were accused of setting fire to law enforcement cars and security service offices in the eastern Gomel province. The four anarchists were arrested in October last year near the Belarus-Ukraine border. They have since been held in a prison run by the KGB security service.”
https://www.macaubusiness.com/belarus-anarchists-given-20-year-jail-terms/

Minsk is displaying a heavy hand in an effort to deter Belorussians who would be otherwise swayed by western propaganda and western handlers to engage in destabilizing action against Lukashenko’s order, or even to directly if unwittingly participate in a western coup against Minsk.