Putin says West, not Belarus, root cause of migrant crisis on border
The Hindu
The Russian President accused Polish forces on the border with Belarus of beating migrants
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Western countries, rather than Belarus, were ultimately responsible for a migrant crisis on the Belarus-Poland border, pointing to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Russia is a key ally of Belarus, which the European Union has accused of mounting a “hybrid attack” by flying in thousands of migrants, mainly from West Asia, and pushing them to try to cross illegally into Poland.
As the EU prepares to impose new sanctions on Minsk, Mr. Putin told Russian state television he thought Belarus was not to blame for the crisis. “Let’s not forget where these crises with migrants came from ... Is Belarus a pioneer in these problems? No, the reasons were created by Western and European countries themselves,” Mr. Putin said.