Putin warns Europe to back off Belarus

The Russian president spoke to his French and German counterparts in separate calls as protests against the Belarus leader swelled.

An anti-Lukashenko rally in the Belarus capital of Minsk. Picture: Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned top European leaders against interfering in the political crisis engulfing Russia’s longtime ally, Belarus, as protests against its leader continued to swell.

Mr Putin spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in separate calls on Tuesday, a day ­before an emergency EU summit discussed the bloc’s response to events unfolding in Belarus.

Demonstrations against President Alexander Lukashenko have unfolded over 11 successive days since he claimed 80 per cent of the vote in an August 9 election widely derided as a sham. Opponents said the vote was neither fair nor free, with some candidates ­detained in the run-up to the ballot or others forced to flee before polling day.

Donald Trump also said the US would speak to Russian officials about the situation.

Opposition leader Svetlana ­Tikhanovskaya, who left for Lithuania the day after the vote, saying she was worried for the safety of her two children, says she is ready to take over the leadership of the country. Belarus’s interior ministry said on Tuesday that some police units had quit, and it called on those remaining to stay at their posts.

According to the Kremlin’s ­account of Mr Putin’s conversation with Ms Merkel, “the Russian side emphasised the unacceptability of any attempts to interfere from the outside in the internal affairs of the republic, leading to a further escalation of the crisis”.

Similarly, the Kremlin’s readout of Mr Putin’s call with Mr Macron emphasised that Russia wouldn’t tolerate outside pressure on Belarus’s leadership.

Ms Merkel said she had “made it clear once again that freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate must be guaranteed, that prisoners must be released and that there must be a national dialogue to settle things peacefully in Belarus”.

The French presidential palace said Mr Macron told Mr Putin the EU was determined to play a constructive role alongside the people of Belarus in ending the violence and finding a political solution.

Mr Putin also spoke with EU Council president Charles Michel, who hosted Wednesday’s EU summit, and relayed to him Moscow’s concern over how external pressure could destabilise the situation in Belarus, the Kremlin said.

Among other things, EU leaders were expected to discuss ­imposing sanctions on Belarusian leaders and officials who oversaw the election and the brutal response to the initial protests, which led to thousands of people being detained.

Belarus’s national investigative committee has reported that more than 600 people have filed complaints over beatings received in detention, while 124 law-enforcement officers complained about violence directed at them.

Mr Lukashenko, a Soviet-era official who has led Belarus for 26 years, has blamed the violence on foreign provocateurs and people under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Earlier Tuesday, he awarded medals to security forces who tried to suppress the protests.

Russia has long viewed Belarus as an important buffer between its western border and the rest of Europe. Belarus was joined at the hip with Moscow as part of the Soviet Union, and the two countries are still bound by lingusitic, cultural and trade ties.

“This is a piece of territory that, particularly under Putin, Russia has long wanted to reel into some kind of subordination de facto or de jure into Russia, and it’s Russia that’s wanted to change the status quo in their relationship,” said Nigel Gould-Davies.

Moscow, though, has grown suspicious of EU and US attempts to exert more influence in Belarus in recent years. Mr Lukashenko, after earlier courting the West himself, has rushed to strengthen his ties to Russia and Mr Putin in the turmoil following the vote, and has accused the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation of building up its forces along Belarus’s border.

NATO says it hasn’t increased forces to the area and doesn’t pose a threat to Belarus.

Later on Tuesday, Mr Putin spoke to Mr Lukashenko in their third call in four days, telling him of his conversations with Mr Macron and Ms Merkel, Belarus’s state news agency reported.

Political analysts said Mr Lukashenko’s strategy appears to be to hold tight and hope that the anti-government protests fizzle. On Monday, as protests and strikes spread around the country of some 10 million, the 65-year-old veteran said he was ready to share power, but only on his terms, and only after a referendum and the introduction of a new constitution.

His opponents dismissed his proposal as a ploy and instead formed a coordination council to smooth any transition of power — something Mr Lukashenko dismissed as a smokescreen for a power grab. Ms. Tikhanovskaya’s supporters denied that. Olga Kovalkova, an aide, told reporters that the council “doesn’t aim to seize power by unconstitutional means.”

There are rising expectations that Russia might intervene in one form or another.

“Make no mistake, Russia will involve itself,” Mr Gould-Davies said. “The question is not whether it will do so, but how it will try to do so.”

The Wall Street Journal