MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin on Wednesday blamed the European Union for a migrant crisis on the border between Belarus and Poland, saying it was failing to uphold its own humanitarian values and trying to “strangle” Belarus with plans to close part of the border.
“It is apparent that a humanitarian catastrophe is looming against the background of Europeans’ reluctance to demonstrate commitment to their European values,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing.
He described as “absolutely irresponsible and unacceptable” a comment by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Tuesday that the crisis “has its mastermind in Moscow”.
Russia is Belarus’s strongest ally and its backing helped President Alexander Lukashenko survive mass protests against his rule last year after a disputed election.
The latest phase of the crisis, in which Poland reported new attempts by large numbers of migrants to break through the border overnight, has given Moscow an opportunity to double down on its support for Belarus and criticise the EU.
Peskov said the EU had in the past let in similar groups of migrants and its moves to close the border now were aimed against Minsk.
“This is nothing other than further attempts to actually strangle Belarus,” he said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei in Moscow on Wednesday and both criticised the EU’s handling of the crisis, saying it had refused to engage in a dialogue with Minsk.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Mark Trevelyan)
