Putin offers help to resolve migrant crisis

  • 2021-11-15
  • LETA/REUTERS/INTERFAX/TBT Staff

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was ready to help resolve a migrant crisis on the border between Belarus and Poland, RIA news agency reported on Sunday citing an interview on a Russian state TV channel.

"We are ready to help it by all means if of course anything would depend on us," Putin was quoted as saying.

As part of the hybrid attack launched by the regime of Belarus' authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, attempts have been made in recent months to send thousands of illegal migrants that have arrived in Belarus as tourists across the European Union's borders into Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Most of the migrants have arrived in Belarus from Iraq.

Since Monday, migrants have massed alongside Belarus' border with Poland and have been trying to push their way into the EU.

Putin on Saturday denied claims Moscow is helping to orchestrate the situation, blaming Western policies in the Middle East for creating the migrant crisis.

"I want everyone to know. We have nothing to do with it," he told state television.

In the above interview, Putin also denied Russia had anything to do with the situation at Belarus' border with the European Union. 

He denied Russian carrier Aeroflot might be involved in transporting migrants to Minsk. 

Putin added that he had discussed the migrant crisis twice with Lukashenko but that he learned about it from the media.