Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that he is ready to send police to Belarus if protests become violent there.
Speaking in an interview aired on Thursday, Putin said at the time that there was no such need and expressed hope to stabilize the situation in the neighboring country.
The president of Belarus for 26 years, Alexander Lukashenko, receives weeks of protests against his re-election for a sixth term in the August 9 vote, which the opposition says was rigged.
Putin told Russian state television that Lukashenko had asked him to create a Russian law enforcement contingent to move to Belarus if necessary.
Putin said he and Lukashenko agree that “there is no need for that now, and I hope it will not be.”
“We have agreed not to use it until the situation begins to spiral out of control and extremist elements acting under the guise of political slogans cross certain boundaries and engage in banditry and start burning cars, houses and banks or administrative buildings. to take over, “he said,
In an apparent blow to the West, which condemned Lukashenko’s uprising against Protestants and urged him to start a dialogue with the opposition, Putin accused unknown foreign forces of trying to gain political advantage from the unrest in Belarus. .
“They want to influence those processes and make certain decisions that they think are in line with their political interests,” Putin said.
Western expansion fears
Russia sees the neighbor as an important bulwark against Western enlargement and an important channel for Russian energy exports.
The two countries have a union agreement that considers close political, economic and military ties, and Lukashenko has relied on cheap Russian energy and other subsidies to keep the Soviet-style economy in Belarus afloat.
Despite the close cooperation, Russia-Belarus-Belarus relations are often strained by conflicts.
Lukashenko has regularly played overtures to the West and accused Moscow of spreading plans to occupy Belarus.
Just before the election, Belarus arrested 32 private Russian military contractors on charges of plotting a riot.
Belarussian authorities released the men shortly after the vote in an attempt to restore ties with the Kremlin amid growing Western criticism.
In the interview, Putin described the incident as a provocation by the Ukrainian and American spy agencies, and accused them of luring the Russians to travel to Belarus by promising their jobs in a third country and the Belarusian authorities believe they are on a mission. had to destabilize. the country.
In search of Moscow’s support, Lukashenko launched protests as part of a Western plot to weaken Russia.
‘Hybrid war’
On Thursday, he accused Belarus’s neighbors of open interference in their affairs with pressure for new elections in what he described as a “hybrid war” and “diplomatic massacre.”
He accused Poland of having plans to take over the Grodno region on the border, saying it called for the deployment of additional Belarusian troops to the border.
Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki rejected such claims last week, saying Poland fully respects Belarus’s sovereignty.
On Thursday, Poland Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the Belarussian ambassador to protest against the “baseless allegations”.
Regarding the repeated unfounded accusations of Belarusian leaders against Poland, the … Belarus Ambassador [was] called to the [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] today at 1500 [hours], “Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said on Twitter.
The United States and the European Union have criticized the August 9 election, which extended Lukashenko’s rule as yet free and honest and encouraged Belarusian authorities to engage in dialogue with the opposition.
The Belarussian leader, who has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist since 1994, dismissed the Protestants as Western puppets and refused to enter into dialogue with the opposition, which is fighting his re-election to a sixth term.
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