The British side, who carefully designed the invasion of Iraq, bears historical responsibility for the Iraqi refugees and has no right to blame Russia for the migration crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote this on Sunday in her Telegram channel in response to British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss' accusations against Moscow.
The diplomat drew attention to a column published on Saturday in The Sunday Telegraph newspaper by the head of the British Foreign Office, who declared "clear responsibility" of the Russian side for the situation on the Belarusian-Polish border and called the migration crisis "carefully designed."
"The British invasion of Iraq was carefully designed. 45 thousand British soldiers helped the United States to occupy that country, kill its citizens and steal its subsoil," Zakharova pointed out.
She said that Britain bears a "clear historical responsibility for everything that has happened in the region since then" - the deaths of Iraqis, the destruction of Iraqi statehood, "endless flows of refugees, the emergence of ISIS (the IS group banned in Russia - TASS), humanitarian disasters in this part of the world."
"Until London is held accountable for its crimes, its officials have no right to accuse anyone," stressed the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.
The crisis on the border of Belarus with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, where migrants have been rushing to since the beginning of the year, sharply escalated on November 8. Several thousand people approached the Polish border from the Belarusian side and are not leaving the border zone, some of them tried to enter Polish territory by breaking the barbed wire fence. EU countries accuse Minsk of deliberately escalating the crisis and call for sanctions. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Western countries themselves are to blame for this situation, as people are fleeing the war because of their actions.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: MFA
based on materials TASS