Bloomberg and The Times report on the aggravation of European-Belarusian relations.
The European Union proposes to impose sanctions against air carriers as part of measures against Belarus against the background of the migration crisis that broke out on the Belarusian-Polish border.
We are talking about a package of restrictive measures that will be introduced to Aeroflot and Turkish Airlines.
This is reported by Bloomberg, which received data from an unnamed official from the European Union.
Similar information was previously announced by Reuters, which reported on the preparation of EU sanctions measures against 30 individuals and legal entities, which included the Belarusian airline Belavia and an official whom the EU blames for organizing the arrival of Middle Eastern refugees to the Belarusian border with a number of European states.
Bloomberg clarifies that they want to apply sanctions to those carriers that rent planes carrying migrants. The time for the introduction of measures may already be the beginning of December.
As Topnews wrote, the crisis on the border of the Republic of Belarus and the EU countries began in the spring, but entered a new phase on November 8, when refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan and a number of other countries tried to break through the Polish border, chanting: “Germany!”.
The migrant camp is located on the Belarusian side. Poland has pulled the armed forces and police to the border, and Lithuania has introduced an emergency regime in the country.
At the moment, there are about 400,000 refugees at the Belarusian-Polish border.
According to the British edition of The Times, Germany and Poland see a Russian trace in this crisis, stating that Putin does not intend to interfere in Lukashenka’s actions, because it is more profitable for him to ignore the antics of Minsk.
According to analyst Mark Bennetts, the Russian leader does not need to arrange such provocations himself, it is easier to let the situation take its course and not interfere with Lukashenka and his adventures.
The expert calls the Belarusian leader a cruel dictator, who defeated the people’s project and declares that he is capable of sowing chaos without resorting to the help of Moscow.
Bennetts points out that Lukashenka needs Russian loans, but he is not a Kremlin puppet.
In favor of the latter, the analyst cites the non-recognition of the Russian Crimea, the ban on the Russian military airbase in Belarus, sanctions against Putin’s favorite publication” – “ KP”.
Bennetts reminded readers that Minsk is only fulfilling the voiced threats to flood Europe with refugees in response to the sanctions over the Ryanair liner that the EU imposed in May.
“It is much easier for Putin to squeeze the maximum out of the chaos on the EU border, counting on disagreements among Western countries,” the expert believes.
Recall that Warsaw is considering the option of completely closing the borders with Belarus.