Russia Ready to Help Resolve Belarus-EU Crisis: Putin
Russia has announced it is ready to help in the migrant crisis on the borders of the EU if there was something Moscow could do, denying allegations of Russian involvement.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a video conference during the World Economic Forum (WEF) of the Davos Agenda, in Moscow, Russia, January 27, 2021 (Sputnik)
Russia is ready to help resolve the crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"We are ready to do everything possible to help [resolve the crisis], if, of course, there is something that depends on us," Putin said on Rossiya 1.
The President denied Saturday that Moscow has any relation to the migrant crisis that has seen hundreds of migrants coming from the Middle East getting stuck on the Belarusian-Polish border.
President Putin cast the blame on the western policies in the Middle East for the ongoing crisis and condemned the Polish allegations which claim that Russia is working with Belarus on sending migrants to the borders of the EU.
The Russian President went on to say that he learned about the current crisis from the media and had never previously discussed the matter with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko.
"Only when this crisis emerged, [Moscow] had two phone conversations with [Lukashenko]," the President added.
On her part, British Secretary of State Liz Truss also blamed Moscow for the border crisis. She accused Minsk of using migrants as "pawns" against the EU and "undermining regional security."
Truss urged Russia to put pressure on Belarus to end the crisis and engage in dialogue in an interview with The Telegraph.
The Minister also called on neighboring European countries to oppose Nord Stream 2, Russia's natural gas pipeline whose construction was recently finished.
According to The Telegraph, the United Kingdom is not only standing with Poland in the crisis, "but also the others in the Visegrad Four - Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic - and our friends in the Baltics and Ukraine.
The United Kingdom had sent a team of 10 soldiers to help Poland "strengthen its border." Belarus spoke of there being around 20,000 people in the camp, including children and a pregnant woman. Poland says there are nearly 3000-4000 migrants on the border, a tally that it said is increasing daily.
