Putin says Russian “reserve” forces are ready to support Lukashenko in Belarus if “the situation gets out of control”

Minsk – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he was ready to hand over a reserve force of police to neighboring Belarus as the political upheaval there it stays backwards.

Speaking on Russian state television, Putin said that the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, “had asked me to set up a certain police reserve,” and “I have done that,” adding, “We have also agreed that it will not be used until the situation gets out of control. ”

Independent protests have beaten Belarus since election result on August 9, Lukashenko, 26, has declared himself the winner with more than 80 percent of the vote, raising global accusations of rigging the vote.

Riot police have violently cracked down on Protestants – sometimes numbering more than 200,000 people – with human rights groups documenting numerous instances of brutality and torture of Protestants in state administration.

Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck.

Putin’s statement marks the Russian president’s first detailed response to the crisis in his backyard, and worries that he could force his longtime ally Lukashenko, or use the unrest as an opportunity to occupy territory, such as he has served in other former Soviet republics.

In 2008, Russia occupied the South Ossetia region of Georgia in its attempt to break away from the country.

In 2014, Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine and sent troops to eastern Ukraine when Protestants forced a Russian-backed authoritarian president into office by occupying the center of the capital, Kiev.

Putin’s commitment to providing Russian security signals that the Kremlin will not tolerate Lukashenko’s violent removal.

The protests in Belarus have been peaceful, despite a heavy hand from the president known as the last dictator of Europe – a moniker Lukashenko enjoys.

During protests on Sunday, state TV showed the president’s helicopter circulating over its head as it called protesters “rats”, then came off with a bullet-proof vest and swung an AK-47 assault rifle to applaud its security forces, it only thing that stood between him and the end of his authoritarian rule.