Putin accuses Western countries of using migrant crisis against Belarus

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West on Thursday of using the migrant crisis at the Belarusian-Polish border to apply more pressure on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Addressing the collegium of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Putin said that Poland and other Western countries forgot their humanitarian obligations while Polish law enforcement officers used water cannons and grenades against migrants. “The first thing that comes to my mind: I just feel sorry for children,“ said Putin. European countries accuse Belarus of flying in thousands of migrants from the Middle East and pushing them to attempt to cross the frontier illegally. Belarus denies fomenting the crisis. Putin also said the West was not taking Russia’s warnings not to cross its “red lines“ seriously enough and that Moscow needed to obtain serious security guarantees from the West. For more info, please go to