MOSCOW (Dispatches) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday denied claims Moscow is helping to orchestrate a crisis that has left hundreds of migrants from the Middle East trapped on the Belarus-Poland border.
Blaming Western policies in the Middle East for the crisis, Putin hit back at claims from Poland and others that Russia is working with Belarus to send migrants to the border of the European Union.
“I want everyone to know. We have nothing to do with it,” he said in an interview with state television broadcast Saturday.
Putin said European leaders needed to talk to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to resolve the crisis and that “as I understand it” German Chancellor Angela Merkel was ready to do so.
“We should not forget where these crises associated with migrants came from... Western countries themselves, including European countries,” he said.
The migrants have been stuck for days in a no-man’s land on the border in near-freezing temperatures, setting up a tent camp and burning wood to keep warm.
Belarus says there are about 2,000 people in the camp, including pregnant women and children. Poland says there are between 3,000 to 4,000 migrants on the border, with more arriving every day.
Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s top foreign policy adviser told AFP on Saturday blaming Turkey or its national airline for the humanitarian crisis at the Polish border with Belarus is “misguided”.
Ankara on Friday banned citizens of three Middle Eastern countries from flying from Turkish airports to the former Soviet republic because of “the problem of illegal border crossings between the European Union and Belarus”.
The decision came days after EU chief Ursula von der Leyen raised the possibility of imposing sanctions on airlines that engage in “human trafficking”.
Erdogan’s foreign policy aide Ibrahim Kalin said accusations that Turkey somehow contributed to the border crisis were unjust.
“This recent crisis of illegal migrants between Belarus, Poland, Lithuania and a few other European countries, in fact, has nothing to do with Turkey,” he said in an exclusive interview.
“Travelers are going to Belarus and from there to Lithuania, Poland and other EU countries. Blaming Turkey for that, or Turkish Airlines, is simply so misguided, misplaced,”

French Politician: Migrants Should Freeze to Death

Speaking to the French BFM TV news channel on the recent events transpiring on the Belarusian-Polish border, Julien Odoul, a member of the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen, said the main task of European authorities must be to protect Europeans.
“We have to keep our borders closed to migrants, we mustn’t let them in,” Odoul said, adding that many of the migrants waiting on the border were “potentially dangerous”.
Responding to a question by journalist Olivier Truchot on whether the migrants ought to be left to freeze at the border, Odoul said, “Absolutely, yes.”
Unable to hide his astonishment, Truchot repeated his question, and Odoul defended himself by saying, “Otherwise, Europe may have to face a migrant invasion.”
The French politician’s remarks became the subject of discussion on many other television programs in the country.