MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russsian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko had asked him to set up a reserve police force, but promised not to use it unless the crisis got out of control, the Interfax news agency reported.
Putin said Russia saw no need for now to use Russian forces in Belarus over the political crisis following a disputed Aug. 9 presidential election, and that Moscow felt the situation was normalising, the RIA news agency reported.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Sujata Rao)
