MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/. Western countries are using the migrant crisis to put pressure on Minsk and as a new pretext for tension, President Vladimir Putin told an expanded board meeting of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.
"It cannot go unnoticed that Western countries are using the migrant crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border as a new pretext for tension in the region close to us, for putting pressure on Minsk. And at the same time, [they] forget their own commitments on the humanitarian track," Putin said.
The migrant crisis on the Belarusian border with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland where migrants have been flocking since the beginning of the year, sharply aggravated on November 8. Several thousand people approached the Polish border from Belarus and refused to leave the area. EU countries have accused Minsk of the intentional escalation of the crisis and have called for sanctions. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated that the Western countries themselves were to blame for the situation since people were fleeing the war in their homelands because of the West’s actions.