Merkel phones Putin over migration crisis at Belarus-EU border. He suggests ‘establishing dialogue with Minsk’
On November 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Germany’s Acting Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. The parties discussed the current migration crisis on the Belarus-EU border.
According to Merkel, the instrumentalisation of migrants that Minsk is currently carrying out is ‘inhuman and unacceptable’. The top politician called on Vladimir Putin to use its influence on the Belarusian authorities in resolving the acute situation. In turn, the Russian leader proposed ‘establishing direct dialogue between representatives of the EU member states and Minsk to discuss the problems that have emerged in this respect,’ the Kremlin press service reports.
Meanwhile, Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya is visiting Berlin; today she is meeting with representatives of Germany’s political forces: the Left Party, the Greens, the Social Democratic Party, and the Free Democratic Party. Tsikhanouskaya has met with Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz; they discussed the ways of supporting Belarusians, the situation of political prisoners as well as the migration issue.
On the first day of her visit to Germany, November 9, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya was welcomed by the Belarusian diaspora. After she delivered a speech, the Free Choir sang the famous protest song Destroy The Prison Walls. Notably, on 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall, which divided the German capital city into two parts, fell.
belsat.eu
