Lukashenko saw that the tactics of Turkey and Morocco were working and went on the attack
Media mentions – Belarus
Lukashenko’s rhetoric, the visa policy and the sudden influx of migrants this summer all point to the involvement of the Belarusian state and travel agencies,
If Poland is to cooperate with the EU on this, these two issues have to be disassociated as much as possible
These countries aren’t comfortable with the methods that Poland is using to repel the migrants, but criticism remains muted, because the methods are effective
Moscow has wanted to station troops in Belarus for years […] Now Moscow could cleverly use the crisis on the border to deploy troops under the guise of ‘protecting Belarus’
The E.U. sanctions so far have had a more symbolical than practical dimension
While other European authoritarians had successfully cast themselves with compelling narratives – ‘Lukashenko has no such narrative.’
This is blackmail, and making concessions to a blackmailer like this won’t improve the situation in the long run
As with any form of blackmail, it would be pointless and dangerous to make concessions – It would send a signal to other authoritarian rulers that such tactics work
The Austrian newspaper quotes from Joanna Hosa’s, Gustav Gressel’s and Pavel Slunkin’s latest commentary on the Polish-Belarussian border crisis