Moscow’s role is crucial.
(Photo: imago images / ITAR-TASS)
November 9th is the day the Berlin Wall came down, it marks a moment of happiness in European history. But there was nothing to celebrate this year. New borders are being fortified in Europe, soldiers are being mobilized.
The Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko is responsible for this. He works as a smuggler to blackmail the EU, has refugees flown in from the Middle East and drives them to the border with Poland. There they stand now, men, women and children, in front of them Polish barbed wire, behind them the Belarusian military.
Lukashenko uses the migrants’ desperation as a weapon and targets the EU’s open flank: the inability of the member states to develop a common refugee policy. The EU reacts, prepares new sanctions. Do not give in, drive up the price of escalation – this is how Europeans want to ward off aggression.
But the EU is evading the crucial debate: the question of Moscow’s role. Lukashenko is internationally isolated and has only one ally – Russian President Vladimir Putin. Without Putin’s protective hand, Lukashenko’s regime would have collapsed long ago, and without Putin’s backing Belarus would hardly dare to attack the EU.
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In the meantime, Moscow has spoken to the poisoned council that the EU should pay Belarus to take in the refugees, as it has been doing with Turkey for years. The Kremlin challenges the EU, tests its readiness for conflict.
The border attack is part of a larger campaign. Moscow is also counting on escalation in the conflict with the pro-Western government of Ukraine. At the same time, Russia is delaying the expansion of gas exports in order to remind countries like Germany of their energy dependency.
If the EU wants to solve the crisis on its eastern border, it is not enough to impose economic penalties on Minsk. Nor should she shy away from confronting Lukashenko’s patron saint in Moscow.
More: Belarus drives refugees to Poland – Seehofer calls for EU intervention