Merkel and Putin Discussed the Situation with Migrants from Belarus

Acting Chancellor of Germany called the use of migrants by the Belarusian regime for political purposes unacceptable. Angela Merkel asked Putin to use his influence on Alexander Lukashenko. Acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday, November 10, discussed by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin the situation with migrants trying to illegally enter the EU from Belarus, said German government spokesman Steffen Seibert. “Chancellor Merkel discussed the situation on the Belarusian-Polish border by phone with President Putin today. She underlined that the instrumentalization of migrants by the Belarusian regime is inhuman and unacceptable and asked President Putin to influence what is happening,” Seibert wrote on his Twitter microblog. Why Merkel called Putin and not Lukashenko Responding to the question from journalists about why Merkel spoke about the migration crisis with Putin and not directly with Lukashenko, Seibert pointed out that the German government proceeds from the fact that Moscow has significant influence over Minsk and the conversation with the Russian president will be heard there as well. According to him, Merkel would state Berlin’s position on the problem of using migrants as a tool, which she spoke with Putin, and to any official representative of Belarus. At the same time, as Seibert recalled, Merkel tried to get in touch with Lukashenko after the presidential elections in August 2020, but Minsk considered this dialogue undesirable. Inflow of migrants to the EU through Belarus In May, the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko announced that Minsk would no longer keep refugees from moving on to EU countries. After that, the flow of illegal migrants increased sharply, first to Lithuania and then to Poland. The European Union accuses the Lukashenko regime of deliberately provoking a migration crisis and organizing the transfer of thousands of illegal immigrants to the EU borders in response to the sanctions that Europe has imposed against his regime. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, in light of the aggravated migration crisis on the borders of the EU countries with Belarus, called on the member states of the European Union to approve the extension of sanctions against the Belarusian authorities.