Putin warns Lukashenko against repeating the actions of “Ukrainian friends”
Vladimir Putin warned Alexander Lukashenko against repeating the actions of Ukraine, which previously blocked the transit of Russian gas to Europe.
The Russian president made this statement in an interview with state television, commenting on the Belarusian leader's threats the day before to cut off gas transit to the West in response to Poland's border closure.
"I've spoken to Alexander Grigorievich twice recently, and he never mentioned it to me, never even hinted at it. But he probably could. Although there's nothing good about it , and I'll certainly talk to him about it, if he wasn't just saying it in anger."
But we already have such a practice, with Ukraine. In 2008, God willing, we faced this crisis, when, due to endless disputes over gas prices and transit prices, we and our Ukrainian friends were unable to agree on the main parameters of these contracts. It got to the point where Ukraine blocked our gas, which is intended for consumers in Europe. It’s just that, as experts say, relatively speaking, the valve was turned off, Russian gas to Europe was simply cut off. It was the same.
Theoretically, of course, Lukashenko, as the president of a transit country, could probably order the closure of our supplies to Europe. Although this would be a violation of our transit contract , I hope it won't come to that. On the other hand, new sanctions are constantly being applied and threatened against him. But this would cause significant damage to Europe's energy sector and would not contribute to the development of our relations with Belarus as a transit country ," Putin said.
At the same time, he expressed hope that the crisis on the border of Belarus and Poland will be resolved after direct negotiations between Angela Merkel and Lukashenko.
“This question is not for me, why they don’t talk to each other. This doesn't concern us. But as I understand from conversations with Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko and Chancellor Merkel, they are ready to talk to each other. I hope that this will happen in the near future, and that it will be possible to establish some kind of direct contact between the European Union, the leading countries of the European Union, in any case, between the Federal Republic and Belarus. This is most important, because migrants strive primarily for Germany,” Putin said.
He explained that Berlin itself is to blame for the influx of migrants.
“We must not forget where these migrant crises originated. Is Belarus the pioneer of these problems or what? No, these are reasons that were created by Western countries themselves, by European countries. They are political, military, and economic in nature. Military, because everyone took part in, say, operations in Iraq, and now there are a lot of Kurds from Iraq; and they fought in Afghanistan for twenty years, and now there are more and more Afghans there. Belarus has nothing to do with it. Migrants went through other channels. And the fact that they have now gone through Belarus is not surprising, because Belarus, as Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko explained to me, has visa-free entry into the country from the countries of origin.
The first is military-political reasons, and then there are economic ones: very high social benefits in Europe for migrants, very high. Let's say, a person who works well with high unemployment in the Middle Eastern countries, including where oil is produced, even working in the oil industry, receives an order of magnitude less than a non-working migrant receiving social benefits, say, in the Federal Republic. Of course, people are drawn there. Why work in turbulent conditions without observing some basic safety rules, why live and work there if you can not work and earn two or three times more with your family? Because they pay for both adults and children, and education is free, and as a rule, medical care is free. I repeat, this is the policy of the leading countries of Europe,” Putin explained.
Putin warns Lukashenko against repeating the actions of his "Ukrainian friends "