How One Authoritarian Used Migrants As A Political Tool, And Why It Worries Biden

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2021

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

U.S. officials have accused Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko of being the latest to take advantage of desperate migrants. They say he helped bring migrants from war-torn nations to the Belarus border in order to create a humanitarian crisis and put political pressure on his European neighbors. Officials worry this type of strategy might be used again.

This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez, and reporter Charles Maynes.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, it's Tamer Keith, and it's that time of year again when we come to you and ask for a little bit of help.
0:07.2	Every day we are here in your podcast feed, and there is so much that goes into gathering the facts and explaining what they mean,
0:15.4	and also making us sound good.
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0:24.1	You are not only helping your station bring you local news that matters in your community, and that is really important, but you're also helping us cover the White House and Congress.
0:34.7	Your donation is crucial from your hometown, all the way to Washington and everywhere in between.
0:41.7	To help us out, go to donate.npr.org slash politics to get started. And thank you.
0:48.8	Hi, this is Danielle. I'm calling in from Alito, Texas, where I'm babysitting my one-year-old nephew.
0:55.9	This podcast was recorded at 207 p.m. on Monday, December 13th.
1:02.4	Things may have changed by the time you hear this. Like for example, hopefully one of us will have taken an app.
1:09.4	Okay, here's the show.
1:14.4	Sleep when the baby sleeps.
1:15.9	I hope the baby's listening. We need some younger listeners.
1:18.9	Yeah, maybe the baby will keep listening. Unlike my children who say, Alexa, play something else. Anything else.
1:28.9	Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamer Keith. I cover the White House.
1:33.2	And I'm Franco Ardena. I also cover the White House.
1:36.0	Usually when we say authoritarian and Eastern Europe in the same sentence, we are talking about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
1:43.2	But not today. We are headed to Belarus where strongman Alexander Lukashenko is being accused by the White House of using migrants as political tools.
1:53.3	And to talk about this topic, we have our Eastern Europe expert for NPR Charles Mainz here with us from Moscow. Hey, Charles.
2:01.0	Hey there.
2:02.0	Franco, let's start with you and set the scene for us.
2:06.5	Why is the White House making this accusation and what's going on?
	...

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