President Vladimir Putin said that he’ll talk to Alexander Lukashenko about gas flows to the Europe Union after the Belarusian leader threatened to interrupt supplies to the energy-strapped continent in the face of more EU sanctions.
Any interruption in gas supplies would threaten the countries’ relationship as transit partners, Putin said.
“He can, probably, though there’s nothing good in that and I will, of course, talk to him about that, if it wasn’t just hot air,” Putin said in an interview on Russian television Saturday. Pipelines crossing Belarus are owned by Russia’s Gazprom PJSC, which lessens the risk of any shutdowns.
President Joe Biden told reporters Friday that the U.S. has communicated its concerns about the migrant crisis to both Russia and Belarus. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization in a statement condemned the “continued instrumentalisation” of the migrant situation “artificially created by Belarus” and said the alliance will remain vigilant.