Lukashenko and Putin are exploiting Europe’s migration muddle

At the border of Belarus and Poland, camps of migrants wait for a chance to cross the border into the EU. Groups attempt to break down the razor wire fences standing in their way, Some 15,000 Polish soldiers stand ready to stop them. Belarusian soldiers urge them on and offer assistance. The Belarusian state shuttles more migrants towards the border by the day, hands out wire-cutters, and prevents them from turning back. Some 30,000 migrants have attempted to cross into Poland since August. That number is swelling by the day, with Belarus now running dozens of flights every week ferrying further desperate people to Europe’s eastern border.

It is customary for cartoonish villains to give a lengthy and discursive speech where they lay out in detail exactly what they plan to do so that the hero can take notes and foil them. Minsk did its part. Lukashenko told the world in May that Belarus would flood the EU with ‘migrants and drugs’, and then he did it.