Wednesday November 10, 2021
Refugee dispute “inhuman”
Merkel asks Putin to intervene in Minsk
Thousands of refugees are currently stuck on the Polish-Belarusian border in freezing temperatures. Because of the growing tensions, Chancellor Merkel asks Russian President Putin to intervene. The “instrumentalization of migrants” is “completely unacceptable,” said Merkel.
Against the background of the tense refugee situation on the border between Belarus and Poland, Chancellor Angela Merkel has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene. In a telephone conversation with Putin, the Chancellor emphasized that “the instrumentalization of migrants against the European Union by the Belarusian regime is inhuman and completely unacceptable,” said government spokesman Steffen Seibert. She asked Putin “to influence the regime in Minsk”.
Putin has suggested that the European Union should work directly with the leadership in Belarus to find a solution, the Kremlin announced in Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed allegations as “absolutely inappropriate” that Russia had anything to do with the conflict. At the same time, he affirmed that Russia supported the brother state in its confrontation with the West.
In the border area between Belarus and Poland, thousands of migrants are currently stuck in freezing temperatures. Both countries have soldiers stationed in the area. Observers fear that the situation will escalate.
The EU accuses Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of deliberately smuggling migrants from the Middle East into the EU states of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in order to retaliate against the sanctions adopted by Brussels. Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Russia of being behind the refugee dispute between Belarus and the EU.