The immigration crisis that is taking place on the border between Belarus and the European Union has been gradually built up in recent months, and has all been engineered by Russia and its puppet ruler in Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. The suffering and misery of the immigrants, most of them from the Middle East, is real and tangible, but the frozen and threatening path they are treading is carefully paved in Moscow and Minsk.
The migrants, including adults and children, are flown by Russian, Belarusian and other friendly airlines, and after landing in Belarus are encouraged to embark on a journey towards a better future in Western Europe. At the forefront are the eastern extremist countries of the European Union, Poland and the Baltic states, which see Russia as a real threat in light of its exploits in Ukraine in recent years.
Those who end up paying the price are the immigrants, who have become weapons in a much bigger game. Some of them froze to death. Others say that even if they regret and want to retrace their steps, the Belarusian soldiers make it clear to them - even violently - that this is a one-way street.
Dreaming of unification with Belarus. Putin in video call with Lukashenko and other regional leaders (Photo: Reuters)
The aim of the cynical and vicious campaign of Russia and Belarus, which has become a kind of satellite state of its own, is to undermine European stability and crack the siege on the Lukashenko regime.
The West has imposed extensive sanctions on the dictator since crushing the opposition following last year's presidential election, and he has become dependent on President Vladimir Putin.
Revenge is an injury to the soft underbelly of Europe that is still scarred from the 2015 immigration crisis
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However, unlike the previous crisis, the wave of immigration is now unnatural - so it was halted after Turkey received billions of euros in aid - and Putin's next move is still unclear.
Although he has built muscle and sent nuclear bombers into the skies of Belarus, Poland and the Baltic states are members of NATO, unlike Ukraine and he does not intend to get into an inter-bloc conflict.
In the video: Refugees on the Polish border (Photo: Reuters)
For years, Putin has worked to unite or strengthen cooperation between Russia and Belarus, where he sees a critical buffer zone against NATO expansion into Russia's borders, but Lukashenko was difficult to achieve. the economic situation in his country. today it is no longer on the agenda for that Western countries do not recognize it more legitimate leader of Belarus, all that remains for him is a fight for survival ruthless.
while Brussels is formulating new sanctions against him, the leader of Belarus implied threat to reduce gas supplies to Europe at the height Russia itself has toyed with this in recent weeks to rake in big profits from the rest of the continent, which still relies heavily on its gas supplies. "Let them scream and scream," Lukashenko said of sending Russia's nuclear bombers to his country.
(Photo: Walla !, official website)
The combined pressure of Putin and Lukashenko is apparently also related to Ukraine, which every few months finds itself under a new Russian threat. Earlier this year, Moscow deployed tens of thousands of troops at its borders with Ukraine, and those withdrew after Putin's talks with US President Joe Biden. But in recent days Russia has moved large forces west, and Biden has sent the CIA chief on a rare visit to Moscow to understand what the next step in Putin's chess game is. Not sure he returned to Washington with a clear answer.
Biden, who has ties to Ukraine even before his presidency - the Ukraine-Gate affair that led to the first impeachment trial against Donald Trump - fails to stem the tide of global and local crises plaguing his less-than-one-year government, from the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban to Iran's nuclear talks. All of these continue to hover over the corona plague and the faltering economy and climate crisis.
Putin is following in the footsteps of Biden, who has promised to defend Europe from Russia's aggression after four years of laxity on the part of the Trump administration, but in the meantime continues on the same hesitant line used by world-class dictators.
The United States is expected to join the forthcoming European sanctions, but sanctions alone have so far failed to stop Russia's desire to disintegrate the EU from within and the eastern border may soon face an important test of Western determination.