Thread: World leaders condemn Belarus after Ryanair flight is forced to land and journalist i

commercial flight on its way from Greece to Lithuania was forced to change course and land in Belarus on Sunday, allegedly as part of a “shocking” and “unprecedented” plot by the country’s government to arrest one of its passengers.

International leaders have demanded swift action against Belarus, calling the incident a “hijacking” and an act of “state terrorism”.
The plane took off from Athens and was heading to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, with 171 passengers on board. Among them was Roman Protasevich, a journalist and vocal critic of the authoritarian regime in Belarus.

The flight’s route took it through Belarusian airspace. Shortly before it would have crossed the border into Lithuania, it suddenly turned east and landed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.

In a statement, Ryanair said Belarus air traffic control had notified the crew of a “potential security threat on board” and instructed them to “divert to the nearest airport, Minsk”.

The flight path, as shown by FlightRadar24, suggests the plane was actually closer to Vilnius than Minsk when it changed course.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet to escort the plane to Minsk.
Ryanair said “nothing untoward” was found once the flight landed. It stayed on the ground for about five hours before resuming its journey to Vilnius. During that time, Mr Protasevich was reportedly arrested.
State media has described the incident as a bomb scare.

.Ryanair plane forced to land in Belarus, journalist Roman Protasevich arrested

Belarusian authorities had put him on a terror watch list. The activist helped spearhead last year's anti-Lukashenko demonstrations which at times shut down large parts of central Minsk

Same old same old. The yahoo's who stormed the capital building in the US were put on terrorist watch lists and no fly lists. So this is what Belarus did. Except this guys actions led to large parts of the capital of Belarus being shut down.

Originally Posted by Backspin

Belarusian authorities had put him on a terror watch list. The activist helped spearhead last year's anti-Lukashenko demonstrations which at times shut down large parts of central Minsk

Same old same old. The yahoo's who stormed the capital building in the US were put on terrorist watch lists and no fly lists. So this is what Belarus did. Except this guys actions led to large parts of the capital of Belarus being shut down.

Every day you prove why most of the board thinks you are an idiot.

Originally Posted by hallelujah

Every day you prove why most of the board thinks you are an idiot.

He is a blanket-apologist for rapists, strongmen etc . . . all while he's holed up in Canada working for his ever-patient father.

Originally Posted by Backspin

Same old same old.

It is absolutely not. It is completely egregious that a nation make a false bomb claim, diverts and lands an international airplane just to arrest someone, good, bad or otherwise.

This is the equivalent of piracy on the high seas.

They are going to have to pay for this.

Very bad move, game forfeited.

It is a violation of the freedom of the air treaty. The first right is:
"The right to fly over a foreign country without landing "
Freedoms of the air - Wikipedia

EU calling it a hijacking.

"The Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said the plane had been “hijacked” and accused Lukashenko of a “reprehensible act of state terrorism”. He said he would demand new sanctions against Belarus at a European Council meeting scheduled for Monday."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/23/belarus-diverts-ryanair-plane-to-arrest-blogger-says-opposition

Originally Posted by TheRealKW

EU calling it a hijacking.

Quite rightly so - these halfwits like Putin, Xi etc... somehow think they are still in the 1970s - at least Russia and China are powerful -this guy is a diseased gnat (agitprop 101)

Originally Posted by TheRealKW

"The Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said the plane had been “hijacked” and accused Lukashenko of a “reprehensible act of state terrorism”. He said he would demand new sanctions against Belarus at a European Council meeting scheduled for Monday."

And this from a right-wing leader

Originally Posted by panama hat

Quite rightly so - these halfwits like Putin, Xi etc... somehow think they are still in the 1970s - at least Russia and China are powerful -this guy is a diseased gnat (agitprop 101)



And this from a right-wing leader

Putin didn't do this. It was Lukashenko, who Putin doesn't actually like. He's a liability to Putin. He accused Putin of causing shit too

Belarus: Lukashenko accuses Russian mercenaries, critics of plotting attack | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 31.07.2020

Originally Posted by Backspin

Putin didn't do this. It was Lukashenko, who Putin doesn't actually like.

Noone said that Putin did it or that it was orchestrated by him.

Originally Posted by TheRealKW

EU calling it a hijacking.

Everyone agrees to that except skidmark who thinks it is ok

Originally Posted by Backspin

Same old same old. The yahoo's who stormed the capital building in the US were put on terrorist watch lists and no fly lists. So this is what Belarus did.

and then they hijacked a civilian airplane and you are too fekking dumb to see the difference.

Originally Posted by OhOh

The stories allegations have yet to be "tested".

No need for any further test when the important part is already known.
The plane was forced to land in the more far away airport of Minsk, Belarus by the order of Lukashenko.
One passenger was missing when the plane continued to Vilnius 5 hours later.

You can take your fekking excuses and shove them up your arse!

Could have been worse, they could have just shot the plane down.

There will be an outcry but nothing will change. Roman Protasevich assessed the risk and got it wrong.

Originally Posted by Troy

There will be an outcry but nothing will change.

...that remains to be seen...the EU may yet send Lukashenko a strongly-worded letter of disappointment...

Is Belarusian President Lukashenko Becoming a Troublesome Partner for Russia?


Analysts say Moscow’s muted reaction to the diversion to Minsk of a Ryanair flight speaks to the Kremlin’s ambivalent view of the strongman.



In the hours after Belarus shocked the world by forcing a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk and arresting prominent opposition figure Roman Protasevich, officials in Russia — Minsk’s ally and patron — maintained conspicuous radio silence on the events.


Though a string of junior officials praised the action, with RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan saying that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko “played it beautifully,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman declined to comment and state-run newspapers largely refrained from reporting the incident.

Only in the afternoon of the next day did Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov say that Belarus had treated the incident with an "absolutely reasonable approach," and call on the global community “to soberly assess the situation.”


Experts on Russian-Belarusian relations say Moscow’s muted reaction speaks to the Kremlin’s ambivalent view of Belarus’s longtime strongman president Alexander Lukashenko, who is at once a beleaguered ally increasingly dependent on Moscow’s goodwill, and a troublesome partner.


“I believe that Lukashenko acted alone, without Russian involvement” said Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the R.Politik political consultancy, of the forced landing, which European Union officials have referred to as “state terrorism” and “air piracy.”


“However, Russia is Lukashenko’s geopolitical guarantor and will continue protecting him as it has no alternative.”

For Lukashenko, who was elected to the Belarusian presidency in 1994 in the only free and fair elections in the country’s history, relations with his much larger neighbour have always been fraught.


Though elected on a broadly pro-Russian, Soviet nostalgic ticket, exploiting a popular backlash against the post-independence revival of the Belarusian language and culture, Lukashenko has always prioritized his own freedom of maneuver over ties with Moscow.


His relations with his Russian counterparts suffered, as the Belarusian president periodically reached out to the west to strengthen his hand against a Russia keen to deepen its integration with Belarus under the Union State, a framework for an eventual merger between the two countries agreed in 1999.


In 2010, relations between Minsk and Moscow hit an all time low amid squabbles over gas prices and dairy imports. Gazprom-owned TV channel NTV — which is widely watched in Belarus — aired a three-part documentary on Lukashenko, entitled “The Godfather,” implicating the Belarusian president in a series of murders of dissidents in the 1990s.


However, the wave of protests against Lukashenko’s re-election to a sixth term in August 2020, which was widely seen as rigged, changed everything.


An unprecedented outpouring of unrest saw vicious repression unleashed by the Belarusian security forces against demonstrators, with at least four people killed and over 30,000 arrested.


As relations with Europe collapsed and sanctions were imposed, Lukashenko — who had initially blamed Russia for fomenting revolution in Belarus — saw his traditional policy of balancing his two large neighbours against each fatally compromised.


Russia, in contrast, was quick to offer financial and rhetorical support to the stricken Lukashenko, who survived the challenge to his authority but was left heavily dependent on his bigger protector.


“Russia is, to some extent, responsible for Lukashenko’s longevity in power,” said R.Politik’s Stanovaya.


“These events most likely tie him even closer to Russia.”


Is Belarusian President Lukashenko Becoming a Troublesome Partner for Russia? - The Moscow Times

Not as if Vlad is going to condemn him, is it?

These dictators stick together as we well know from Asia.

I see he's wheeled out for the obligatory forced confession.

How #Belarus airspace looks right now. Visual demonstration of who #Lukashenko is - international outcast

I'm surprised Vlad hasn't sent a supportive Aeroflot banger there to show some support.

Originally Posted by lom

more terrified of Belarus moving towards the western sphere and becoming a NATO member

You think vlad gives a flying fuck about NATO?

He invaded Ukraine you halfwit. No-one did a fucking thing about it bar a few sanctions.

Originally Posted by lom

more terrified of Belarus moving towards the western sphere and becoming a NATO member

Luckily NATO still has a moral guideline? Belarus???

Originally Posted by tomcat

...that remains to be seen...the EU may yet send Lukashenko a strongly-worded letter of disappointment...

Followed by an apology for the strongly-worded letter.
The Russian foreign minister of course has apparently said the matter needs to be investigated and shouldnt be rushed which is what you would expect from Putin and his cronies.
The UK has already diverted its aircraft and banned the Belarus airline from the UK.

How outrgeous and heinous such crime is we can see on the length of the airing time of many TV stations and on the actions of the outrageous EU leaders. The uttermost attention seems to overrun some minor events as it was - and still is - in Palestine.