Macron and Putin want to reduce escalation on the Polish-Belarusian border
Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron affirmed their support for de-escalation on the Polish-Belarusian border.
Sources in the Elysee Palace said that the two presidents spoke during a long telephone conversation about the role that Russia could play in resolving the conflict.
The two presidents said immigrants should be respected. Paris hopes that the conversation will have a positive impact on the situation on the ground.
The aim of the contact, from France’s point of view, was to end the crisis.
According to the Kremlin, Putin said that EU heads of state should discuss the problem directly with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Putin also criticized Poland’s border guard force for its “repression” of migrants.
The European Union accuses Lukashenko of transporting people in an organized manner from crisis areas to the external borders of the European Union, which made Poland, Lithuania and Latvia tighten border security, although thousands are still able to reach Germany.
For his part, Lukashenko said that he would stop preventing migrants from continuing their journey from his country to Poland and the Baltic states, in reaction to the strict European sanctions on his country.
The European Union had imposed sanctions on Belarus over what it described as the manipulation of the results of a presidential election last year in Lukashenko’s favor, and the suppression of the opposition.
