Russia showed its explicit support for Belarus in the Polish-Belarusian border crisis by sending two strategic bomber planes that are now patrolling Belarusian airspace, Reuters reported on Wednesday, 10 November.
It also laid the blame for the migrant crisis on the European Union by accusing it of attempting to "strangle" Belarus.
It further urged EU members to engage in talks directly with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.
A detailed explainer on the current crisis can be found here.
It was also reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephonic conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday, 10 November, and told her that Russia would be happy to mediate between Minsk and Brussels to resolve the crisis, The Guardian reported.
RIA Novosti, the state-owned Russian news agency, said that the Russian defence ministry had officially stated that the bombers were to deal with the rise in tensions on NATO's eastern front.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov along with Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei addressed a news conference together in which they expressed hope that the European nations would "not allow themselves to be drawn into a spiral that is fairly dangerous".
Brussels has stated that Minsk has manufactured the crisis to take revenge against the EU for the sanctions that were slapped on it due to electoral fraud and human rights abuses by the Lukashenko government.
(With inputs from Reuters and The Guardian)
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