Putin ally drops cryptic hints about imminent 'cleansing' in Europe

A key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin this week cryptically alluded to what he said was an imminent "cleaning" to take place on the European continent at some point in the near future. 

"[T]he time has come for the forgetful Europe to give itself a moral cleansing," Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a recent government meeting in Minsk. 

Lukashenko was speaking in reference to what he said were atrocities committed by Nazis during what is known in Russia as the "Great Patriotic War," or the roughly four-year period in which Russia squared off against Nazi Germany. 

""They - all who chose to forget - will have to look again at the grueling evidence of the bloody crimes of their own fathers and grandfathers," Lukashenko said, according to the news service BelTA.

Lukashenko currently enjoys what observers term an allyship with Putin, though the two have had a strained relationship at times in the past.