Vladimir Putin says he has police on standby to enter Belarus

Vladimir Putin has said Russian police are on standby to be sent to Belarus if the situation in the country deteriorates, following mass protests against dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Belarusian police launched a brutal crackdown on demonstrations this month after Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled the Eastern European country with an iron fist for 26 years, claimed 80 percent of the vote in a presidential election widely seen as rigged. The Russian President said Mr Lukashenko had asked him “to form a reserve of law enforcement employees, and I have done so”. “But we also agreed they would not be used unless the situation gets out of control,” Mr Putin said in an interview with state television on Thursday. Russia would intervene if “extremist elements, using political slogans as cover, overstep a certain boundary...in general, however, the situation is levelling out”.