ROME — The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Pope Francis mention of the Mediterranean Sea as a migrant “graveyard” cannot be construed to refer to Russia.
Despite recent accusations against Russia as being responsible for the Belarusian-Polish migration crisis, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that the waters of the Mediterranean bathe neither the coasts of Russia nor those of Belarus.
On Saturday, the pope lamented the unfriendly reception migrants often receive in Europe and elsewhere, going on to refer to the Mediterranean Sea as a graveyard.
“How many have lost their lives at sea!” the pontiff said. “Today our sea, the Mediterranean, is a great cemetery.”
Members of the Spanish NGO Maydayterraneo take a group of migrants from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan to a rescue boat during the rescue of 65 migrants in the Mediterranean waters off the Libyan coast on February 10, 2020. (PABLO GARCIA/AFP via Getty)
On November 9, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Vladimir Putin of orchestrating the situation of the thousands of migrants trying to enter Poland from Belarus, warning that this attack risked destabilizing the country as well as the European Union.
On the same day, Peter Stano, spokesman for the European Commission, accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of behaving like a “gangster” by fueling migrant smuggling to put pressure on the EU after the adoption of sanctions against Minsk for human rights violations.
Lukashenko told refugees on November 25 that his country would help those who want to return home, but not force them. He nevertheless stressed that Belarus would not hold back “those who want to go west.”
In response to these and other accusations, Zakharova said the West is trying to blame Moscow for the situation on the border between Belarus and Poland as a political ploy.
“They are looking for something that they could sell to their electorate, their citizens and the international community to explain why they are in such a situation again. That is why they need an external factor,” she stated.
“First, they point to the Belarusian authorities,” she added, and then they “invoke Russia as a major cause that can be blamed for any situation.”
The West acts in this way because it “does not like and does not want to admit its faults,” she said.
Zakharova has called out Joe Biden by name, saying his hostility toward Russia “borders on blatant Russophobia,” in reference to recent sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and his administration’s alleged mistreatment of Russian nationals living in the U.S.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.