“We should not forget the roots of these migration crises. Was it Belarus that unleashed these problems? No, the problems were caused by the West, by the European countries.” the President said in the TV program broadcasted by the Rossiya1 channel.

He stressed that these problems have political, military and economic dimensions. “Military because everyone participated in the Iraq operations, and now there are many Kurds from Iraq (among the migrants); they had also fought in Afghanistan for twenty years, thus there are more and more Afghans (in Europe).”

In his opinion, Belarus is not responsible for the current crisis. “The migrants were also moving via different routes. And it is not surprising that they are now going through Belarus because, as Mr. Lukashenko told me, Belarus has visa-free arrangements with the countries of origin.”

On the economic reasons, Putin there are very high social benefits for migrants in Europe, such as higher social benefits in Europe for the unemployed. “It is natural that people are heading (to Europe),” he said.

In another part of the interview, Putin assured that Moscow has nothing to do with the migration crisis on the border of Belarus with Poland.

“I want everyone to know this. We have absolutely nothing to do with any of this. They are trying to shift the responsibility to us at the slightest pretext or even without any pretext. Our airlines do not carry those people. Not a single one of our airlines is involved.” Putin stressed.

pgh/llp/msm/mml