Belarus, 4 thousand migrants on the Polish border. Warsaw: ‘Pushed by Minsk, but Putin is behind it’. EU suspends visas for government members

L’European Union does not allow hesitation on the subject of defense of external borders. He had made it clear after the last one EU Council on Migration and the first test is the new voltage on the border between Belarus e Poland, with Warsaw which deployed the police and military forces at the border to block the hundreds of people who arrived in an attempt to enter European territory fleeing the Middle East or fromCentral Asia. Thus, in addition to offering the Polish government, with which he is fighting hard over the independence of the judiciary, logistical support, the EU Council has decided to suspend the visa facilitation scheme for the exponents ofexecutive of Minsk, in response to what Brussels believes to be a “Hybrid attack” by the government Lukashenko. While the spokesperson for the European External Action Service, Peter Stano, did not rule out the role of fly, ally of Minsk, also in this affair: “The Russia it is in the dozen countries that we monitor very carefully – he said – It is on our radar and we evaluate information on the possible role in the situation “at the border. The spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitri Peskov, on the other hand, he limited himself to defining the situation as “alarming. It requires very responsible conduct from all interested parties ”. While the Polish premier, Mateusz Morawiecki, said: “Behind the migrant crisis is the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin”

The Warsaw government makes it known that they are 4 thousand migrants currently massed at the border, while the spokesman for the special services of Warsaw, Stanislaw Zaryn, argues that the Belarusian security forces have “fired shots in the air, simulating dangerous situations “to destabilize the situation even more:” We also know – he added – that the authorities of Belarus they are helping migrants to break down border barriers. We see them bringing them the tools to cut the cables, to destroy the fence ”.

The EU suspends visa facilitation and warns Russia: “We are watching you”
“The Council – reads a note – today adopted a decision partially suspending the application of the EU-Belarus visa facilitation agreement”. The suspension concerns provisions that exempt the requirements for documentary evidence, govern the issuance of visas for multiple entrances and reduce the taxes for visa applications applied to exponents of the Belarusian regime. An initiative, however, which will only concern the members of the executive and not ordinary Belarusian citizens. The EU then added that “we strongly condemn and reject the continuing exploitation of migration by the Belarusian regime. It is unacceptable for Belarus to play with people’s lives for political purposes. Today’s decision once again demonstrates our joint commitment to continue to counter this ongoing hybrid attack, “he explained. Ales Hojs, Minister of the Interior of Slovenia and President of the Council of Internal Affairs.

Stano then pointed out that “for us the first culprit is Lukashenko and all our efforts are aimed at stopping him” and that “Russia is not among the countries with which we have had direct contact, or made an action. In Russia for the moment we are monitoring and evaluating the situation, ”he added

Minsk defends itself: “Unfounded accusations”
After the European action and the accusations that arrived yesterday, the Belarusian government has responded by denying any responsibility. “The Belarusian Ministry of Defense believes unfounded and unsubstantiated allegations on the Polish side ”, reads a statement from the same ministry accusing Poland of increasing the tension“ deliberately ”. The government then goes on to counterattack by putting Poland on guard against any “provocation” at the border: “We want to warn the Polish side in advance against the use of any provocation to justify any illegal warlike actions“Against migrants.

Even the president Aleksander Lukashenko, who heard his Russian and ally counterpart by telephone in the early afternoon Vladimir Putin, announced that he will not bow to the will of the EU: “It will not bow to Europe”, he has declared. And after Warsaw’s declarations on the involvement of the Minsk army, the military attaché at the Polish embassy in the capital of Lukashenko’s country was summoned to the Ministry of Defense to report “that the accusations of the Polish side on the involvement of Belarusian military are unfounded and unjustified ”.

Germany offers support and appeals to the EU: “Act”
Among the first to offer support to Poland, also for purely geopolitical reasons, given that the two countries are neighboring and the vast majority of migrants at the border aim to reach the Federal Republic, is the Germany who invited Brussels to “act”: “Poland or Germany cannot do it alone – he told the image the interim interior minister, Horst Seehofer – We must help the Polish government to protect their external border. This would indeed be the task of the European Commission. Now I invite them to act ”. And he went so far as to support the Warsaw proposal of build a wall on the border to prevent the illegal passage of people: “We cannot criticize them for having protected the external borders of the EU – he added – Not through the use of firearms of course, but with other means that are available”.

Born, Stoltenberg hears President Duda: “Serious situation”
Also there Then she is concerned about the pressure strategy put in place by Belarus. The Alliance considers that border, along with that between Russia and the Baltic countries, one of the most sensitive and delicate to monitor, precisely because of the fear of ameddling by Moscow which aims at greater influence on those territories. Thus the general secretary, Jens Stoltenberg, spoke to the Polish president Andrzej Duda of the “serious situation” at the border arguing that “the use of migrants by Belarus as a hybrid tactic is unacceptable. NATO is in solidarity with Poland and all allies in the region ”. And remember that the presence of the military of the Atlantic Pact, already massive for years, can be a deterrent to the unscrupulous actions of neighboring countries: “With the Enhanced forward presence (enhanced presence), NATO has already had four multinational battalions in the Eastern region of the Alliance for years, in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania e Poland, (missions established after the annexation of the Crimea for a total of over 4,600 units), led respectively by UK, Canada, Germany e United States“, We read in fact on the NATO website.

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