(Moscow) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday rejected accusations that Moscow was at the origin of the ongoing migration crisis on the border between Belarus and Poland, where thousands of migrants have been massed for days.
Sweeping Western voices claiming that Moscow had orchestrated with Minsk the sending of migrants to the eastern border of the European Union, Vladimir Putin blamed the West and its strategies in the Middle East.
“I want everyone to know that. We have nothing to do with it, ”the president said in a television interview. “We must not forget where these crises involving migrants come from… Western countries themselves, including European countries”.
PHOTO LEONID SHCHEGLOV, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The migrants, mostly Iraqi Kurds, have been stuck for days on the eastern border of Europe, in the cold, surviving in makeshift camps and burning wood for warmth.
During a meeting in Moscow this week, the head of the Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov and his Belarusian counterpart had already affirmed that the flows of migrants were provoked by the Western military interventions in the Middle East.
Vladimir Putin said that European leaders should address Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko directly to resolve this crisis, which they are reluctant to do since the historic protest following his re-election in 2020.
From what I understand, Alexander Lukashenko and (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel are ready to talk to each other
Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
The migrants, mostly Iraqi Kurds, have been stuck for days on the eastern border of Europe, in the cold, surviving in makeshift camps and burning wood for warmth.
According to Belarus, some 2,000 people are there, including pregnant women and children. Warsaw, for its part, claims that there are between 3,000 and 4,000 migrants at the border, and that new people are arriving daily.
Tents, heating, water
Their situation worries, temperatures plunging over the days. Poland denies them entry and accuses Belarus of preventing them from leaving the area.
The Belarusian authorities for their part announced on Saturday the delivery of aid to migrants, including tents, water, firewood and a generator, which could perpetuate this site at the gates of the EU.
REUTERS PHOTO
Migrants have been trying to reach the European Union from Belarus for several months, but the situation changed when, on Monday, hundreds of them attempted to cross en masse and were turned away by Polish border guards.
Since then, new sporadic attempts to cross the border have taken place. Polish police said on Saturday that the body of a young Syrian man was found in a forest near the border, with the cause of death not yet determinable.
A group of around 100 people tried to cross the border in this area overnight, the source said.
The death pushes the number of migrants found dead on both sides of the border since the crisis began this summer to eleven, according to NGOs.
The EU accuses the Belarusian president of having organized the arrival of migrants in order to avenge Western sanctions against his regime, since the brutal repression of a movement contesting his re-election in 2020.
Alexander Lukashenko has held the country with an iron fist for almost three decades.
New sanctions
New European sanctions “will be decided and applied”, for his part indicated the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, in the French daily Le Figaro on Saturday.
In the sights, in particular, the Belarusian airline company Belavia, accused of having transported groups of migrants to Minsk in particular from Istanbul.
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called on EU countries to reject any dialogue with Lukashenko.
“There can be no dialogue with the dictator who is trying to blackmail democratic countries,” she said on Twitter.
Brussels on Friday hailed “progress” in efforts to stem the influx of migrants after Turkey banned Iraqis, Syrians and Yemenis from boarding Belarus from its soil.
Turkey has also rejected any responsibility for the crisis, the spokesman for the Turkish presidency, Ibrahim Kalin, telling AFP on Saturday that blaming Ankara would be “” misguided and inappropriate “.
On the Polish-Belarusian border, the situation remains tense, with thousands of troops deployed on both sides.
Russia is showing its support in Belarus, but seems reluctant to get too involved. Vladimir Putin thus dissociated himself on Saturday from threats from his Belarusian counterpart this week to interrupt Russian gas deliveries to Europe via the gas pipeline passing through his country.
“Honestly, this is the first time I’ve heard that,” Poutin said. He never told me about it […] He probably could do it, but it wouldn’t be right. “I will of course talk to him about this subject, if he just did not say it in a movement of humor,” he added.