Putin is always behind the migrant flows – European Commissioner
This was stated by Magnus Brunner, the European Commissioner for Migration, according to the Financial Times.
The European Union is currently expecting a new wave of migration due to the war in Iran. Although Putin did not start it, he has long supported the repressive regime of the ayatollahs, Brunner noted.
“Putin is always involved in such large migration flows. It is always Vladimir Putin,” the Commissioner stated.
The civil war in Syria triggered a major crisis in 2015–2016, when over 2 million people arrived in Europe. Putin then began providing military aid to Bashar al-Assad, and the Russian troops he sent to Syria carried out bombing raids on civilian towns there. They began to apply these tactics in Ukraine from 2022.
The second wave of migration consisted of “Ukrainians arriving in the European Union, and here again Vladimir Putin was involved,” noted Brunner. Around 4.3 million Ukrainians have been granted temporary protection in the EU.
Russia also began sending migrants from poor Middle Eastern and African countries across its own and Belarusian borders into the EU with the aim of deliberately destabilising the region.
When Russia and Belarus allowed migrants to cross the border into Poland, EU countries closed the bloc’s borders for security reasons. Such a measure could be applied now too, an EU diplomat told the FT.
According to Brunner, there is currently no flow of migrants from Iran.
“But we must, of course, remain vigilant, as the situation can change from one day to the next,” he added.
A number of EU countries, led by Italy and Denmark, are insisting on the use of tough measures, including border closures, to prevent an influx of refugees from the Middle East and a repeat of a crisis similar to the Syrian one. Brunner said that Brussels is taking such requests very seriously.
