Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that he stands ready to send police to Belarus if protests there turn violent, but sees no such need yet, while Belarusian police on Thursday dispersed a protest in the capital with renewed vigor, detaining about 180 people and raising pressure on the opposition.
Belarus’ authoritarian president of 26 years, Alexander Lukashenko, has been facing weeks of protests against his re-election to a sixth term in the Aug. 9 vote, which the opposition says was rigged.
Putin on Thursday told Russia’s state television that Lukashenko has asked him to prepare a Russian law enforcement contingent to deploy to Belarus if necessary.
Photo: Reuters
Putin said he and Lukashenko have agreed that “there is no such need now, and I hope there won’t be.”
“We have agreed not to use it until the situation starts spinning out of control and extremist elements acting under the cover of political slogans cross certain borders and engage in banditry and start burning cars, houses and banks or take over administrative buildings,” he said.
Hours after Putin’s interview, hundreds of riot police dispersed a protest on the Belarusian capital’s main square in a move that underlined Lukashenko’s determination to squelch protests. Scores of reporters were also detained.
The Coordination Council, formed by the Belarusian opposition to facilitate a peaceful transition of power, criticized Putin’s statement, saying it is “inadmissible” for any country to form armed units for use in Belarus.
In an apparent jab at the West, which has condemned Lukashenko’s crackdown on protesters and urged him to launch a dialogue with the opposition, Putin accused unidentified foreign forces of trying to win political advantages from the turmoil in Belarus.
Russia sees neighboring Belarus as a key bulwark against Western expansion and an important conduit for Russian energy exports.
The two countries have a union agreement envisaging close political, economic and military ties, and Lukashenko has relied on cheap Russian energy and other subsidies to keep Belarus’ Soviet-style economy afloat.
“Putin must be ashamed, he’s promising to add Russian clubs to the Belarusian ones,” 45-year-old protester Regina Fustovich said.
Another protester, Irina Furs, a 30-year-old medical worker, said that “the Kremlin is afraid that the Belarusians could show an example of a successful peaceful struggle.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine has frozen contact with Belarus and joined the EU in condemning the elections as not free or fair, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said yesterday.
Kuleba said there was no reason to break off diplomatic relations entirely, but Ukraine would take a decision on imposing sanctions on Belarus after seeing what the EU would do.
Ukraine has temporarily banned the entry of foreigners into the country to contain the spread of COVID-19, but Kuleba said Belarusians wanting to escape their political crisis might be exempted and given entry permits.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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