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The West Itself, Not Putin, Is Behind Every EU Migrant Crisis

By Editor on 10th April 2026 • ( 0 )

The West Itself, Not Putin, Is Behind Every EU Migrant Crisis

The purpose in talking about this now might be aimed at manipulating Hungarian voters into supporting the opposition during the upcoming parliamentary elections on the false basis that Prime Minister Viktor Orban is friends with the man responsible for two migrant crises.

European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner told the Financial Times that Putin is the “biggest driver” behind every EU migrant crisis, emphasizing that “It’s always Putin who is involved in those big migration movements. It’s always Vladimir Putin.” His argument is that Russia’s support of the former Assad Government in Syria and its ongoing special operation in Ukraine were responsible for two large-scale migrant influxes. The truth is that the West itself, not Putin, is to blame.

As regards Syria, the West conspired with Turkiye, the Gulf Kingdoms, and Israel to turn violent anti-government protests at the start of the 2011 “Arab Spring” (a euphemism for the attempted theaterwide Colour Revolution blitz across the Middle East-North Africa) into a civil-international war. Four years later, the first large-scale migrant crisis occurred, which peaked in summer 2015 shortly before Russia’s anti-terrorist intervention in Syria that began at the end of that September. Russia therefore wasn’t at fault.

With respect to Ukraine, Russia initiated its special operation after Putin believed that it was the only way to avert NATO’s clandestine military expansion into Ukraine, preempt Kiev’s imminent offensive in Donbass, and reform the European security architecture after the West refused its requests. Even if one still blames Russia for initiating cross-border kinetic hostilities, Western arms kept the conflict going for over four years in an attempt to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, thus leading to more refugees.

Brunner conspicuously ignored NATO’s 2011 war on Libya, which was led by France and the UK with US backend assistance via the “Lead From Behind” model, even though this conflict led to a massive supply of arms that were then funnelled by the previously mentioned countries to Syria for worsening its war. Open air slave markets also returned to the Southern Mediterranean coast as it became a major transit point for West African economic migrants to infiltrate into the EU through nearby Malta and Italy.

Likewise, no mention was made of the fact that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan weaponized refugees for political leverage against the EU and pecuniary benefit from it, which readers can learn more about from this early 2016 analysis here. The Financial Times touched upon the Belarusian route that migrants take to enter the EU through Poland, which it blamed Russia in part for, though without contextualizing why Belarus allows this nor Russia’s limits in stopping it even if Putin wanted to.

From Minsk’s perspective, it’s an asymmetrical response to Poland’s role in summer 2020’s failed Colour Revolution, the EU’s sanctions, and NATO’s growing presence on its borders, which doesn’t excuse its policy but nevertheless cogently explains it. From Moscow’s perspective, Russia and Belarus are in a Union State with free movement between them, so it can’t prevent Russian visa holders from traveling there. Russia also won’t limit visas from the Global South since that’s its post-2022 geostrategic priority.

Circling back to Brunner’s false claim that Putin is behind every EU migrant crisis, the purpose in talking about this now might not be solely to impugn him as usual. Rather, it could be aimed at manipulating Hungarian voters into supporting the opposition during Sunday’s parliamentary elections on the false basis that Prime Minister Viktor Orban is friends with the man responsible for two migrant crises, thus representing another form of their meddling. They’re not expected to fall for this crude ploy.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.