The Washington Post - USA (2021-11-11)

(Antfer) #1

A16 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11 , 2021


BY ROBYN DIXON

moscow — T he European Union
will hit Belarus with new sanc-
tions as early as next week in
retaliation for the ongoing mi-
grant crisis on the Polish border,
according to a top E.U. official,
following talks in Washington
with President Biden.
The president of the European
Commission, Ursula von der Ley-
en, also told reporters that fur-
ther U.S. sanctions are being
readied for early December
against the regime of Belarusian
President Alexander Lukashen-
ko, who has used migrants from
the Middle East and elsewhere as
pawns in a deepening battle with
the European Union.
“We have to protect our democ-
racies from these kinds of cynical
geopolitical power plays,” said
von der Leyen. “We share the
assessment that this is an attack
by an authoritarian regime to try
to destabilize democratic neigh-
bors, and this will not succeed.”
Tensions have steadily escalat-
ed between the West and Rus-
sian-backed Lukashenko since he
claimed victory in elections last
year that were widely viewed by
Western governments as rigged.
Earlier this year, Belarus allowed
arriving migrants to flood toward
E.U. nations such as Lithuania.
Ahead of von der Leyen’s meet-
ings with Biden on Wednesday,
Russia sent two long-range stra-
tegic Tu-22M3 bombers to patrol
Belarus’s western borders, in a
show of support for Lukashenko’s
otherwise isolated regime.
The new measures by the E.U.
and the United States may also
target “third-countries’ airlines”
that have “facilitate[d] human
trafficking” by flying migrants to
Belarus in recent months, von der
Leyen said.
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen
Seibert, said she phoned Russian
President Vladimir Putin and
told him the exploitation “of mi-
grants against the European
Union by the Belarusian regime is


inhumane and completely unac-
ceptable” and asked him to use
his influence to stop it.
P oland has accused Belarusian
soldiers of firing their weapons
near terrified migrants to drive
them across the border.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmit-
ry Peskov blamed Europe for a
“looming humanitarian catastro-
phe” that is due to “the unwilling-
ness of our European colleagues
to demonstrate the adherence to
their European values.”
Many of the migrants on the
border have told Belarusian state
media they are trying to get to
Germany, not stay in Poland. Ger-
man Foreign Minister Heiko
Maas accused Lukashenko of “un-
scrupulously exploiting” the mi-
grants by sending them to the

border region.
“We will sanction all those who
participate in the targeted smug-
gling of migrants,” Maas said,
adding that the E.U. must “extend
and tighten” sanctions.
Putin told Merkel that Euro-
pean leaders must talk to Minsk
directly, the Kremlin press office
said, but the two leaders agreed to
continue consultations.
Putin holds considerable sway
over Lukashenko, who pivoted to
Russia for support when he faced
mass protests after disputed Au-
gust 2020 presidential elections.
“The Russian president pro-
posed that a discussion of arising
problems be arranged in direct
contacts between representatives
of E.U. member states and Minsk,”
the Kremlin statement said.

The border crisis has been
brewing since June but came to a
head Monday, when a large col-
umn of migrants, mainly from the
Middle East and North Africa,
walked to the Polish border to
seek entry, escorted along a high-
way by armed Belarusian security
forces, before being funneled into
a forest adjacent to the Polish
border fence.
Poland said Monday that it was
sending 12,000 troops to rein-
force the border, as Maciej Wasik,
Poland’s deputy interior minister,
declared on Twitter, “They will
not come in.” Warsaw officials
said Wednesday that migrants
made repeated attempts to break
through the fence and enter Po-
land overnight, adding that more
than 50 people had been detained

near Bialowieza after crossing
from Belarus.
Poland’s Ministry of Defense
on Wednesday released a brief
video taken from the Polish side,
showing armed Belarusian ser-
vicemen firing their weapons
near terrified migrants. The min-
istry said the video showed that
Belarusian forces “intimidate mi-
grants by firing shots in their
presence.”
The E.U. slapped sanctions on
Belarusian officials and entities
in October 2020 over its “fraudu-
lent” presidential election and
Lukashenko’s ensuing violent
crackdown on peaceful protest-
ers. So far, four rounds of sanc-
tions have targeted 166 people
and 15 entities linked to the re-
gime. There have also been sanc-

tions over the forced diversion of
a Ryanair flight to arrest an oppo-
sition journalist in May.
Lukashenko reacted angrily to
the sanctions in June, warning
that Belarus would no longer
prevent asylum seekers, drugs
and even nuclear materials from
entering the bloc. From then a
trickle of migrants grew to a
flood, arriving by plane to the
capital, Minsk, on tourist visas.
On Tuesday, in response to the
migrant crisis, the Council of the
European Union suspended visa
facilitation arrangements for Be-
larusian officials seeking to travel
to Europe.
The Kremlin has praised Bela-
rus’s approach to the crisis as
“constructive” and legal.
[email protected]

E.U., U.S. ready new sanctions on Belarus in border crisis


RAMIL NASIBULIN/BELTA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere warm up near a fire at a camp near Grodno, Belarus, close to the Belarus-Poland border, on Wednesday.

Poland accuses Minsk of
using migrants as pawns
to raise political tensions

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