Russia establishes border zone with Belarus without prior warning : Belarusian FM

The Russian side made the decision to establish a border zone at the frontier with Belarus without prior warning, deputy head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry's information department Maria Vanshina told a press conference on Thursday.

The Foreign Ministry of Belarus noted that "unfortunately, this is not the first case like this". "A similar situation took place in early 2016, when Russia actually started introducing restrictions with regard to entry of citizens of third countries across the border between Belarus and Russia,"she recalled.

Earlier Russian Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov ordered to set up border zone at the frontier with Belarus. The border zone is being set up "to create necessary conditions for protection of the state border of the Russian Federation," according to the acts.

"Such a lack of coordination of actions naturally gives rise to reasonable questions," Vanshina said.

She also added that such actions lead to the restoration of full control on the Belarusian-Russian border, canceled more than twenty years ago.

Vanshina stressed that in this case the initiative comes not from the Belarusian side.

Border controls along the Russia-Belarus border were lifted after the two countries signed the Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighborliness and Cooperation in 1995. Endit