Russian President Vladimir Putin says he has formed a police reserve force to intervene in Belarus if necessary, but that point has not yet been reached.
Speaking on Russian state TV, he said Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko “asked me to set up a certain police reserve” and “I have done so”.
“We also agreed that it won’t be used until the situation gets out of control,” he told Rossiya 1TV.
Mr Lukashenko’s disputed 9 August re-election triggered huge protests.
Mr Putin said Russia had an obligation to help Belarus with its security under the two countries’ close alliance, and he stressed the deep cultural, ethnic and linguistic ties between the two nations.
He said the new reserve force would not go into Belarus unless “extremist elements using political slogans as cover cross a certain boundary and start armed robbery, setting fire to cars, houses, banks, try to seize government buildings and so forth”.
He added that “on the whole, though, the situation now is levelling out”.
BBC
