Russia floats idea of EU paying Belarus to stop migrant flows

FILE PHOTO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 leaders' summit in Rome, Italy October 30, 2021. Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday suggested that the European Union could provide financial assistance to Belarus in order to encourage it to stop migrants from crossing into the bloc.

Thousands of migrants have converged in Belarus near the Polish border, some of them using spades to try to break down a border fence, escalating a months-long crisis that has prompted calls for tighter Western sanctions on Minsk.