Shady AF

Yesterday, aviation authorities there collaborated in the hijacking of a Ryanair plane that was crossing through Belarusian airspace en route from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania. Belarusian air-traffic control falsely told the pilots that the plane had a bomb on board. According to Belarusian state media, the plane was then “escorted” to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, by a MiG fighter jet.

In reality, there was no bomb, the threat was fake, and Minsk was not even the closest airport; after the plane landed, nobody rushed to get the passengers to safety. The real point of the exercise became clear after two passengers were removed. One of them was Roman Protasevich, a Belarusian opposition blogger and journalist. The other was his girlfriend, Sofya Sapega. Protasevich was one of the original editors of Nexta, a Telegram blogging channel that became one of the most important sources of public information during mass anti-regime demonstrations that took place in Minsk last summer. Protasevich fled the country in 2019 and has been living in exile ever since.


https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/05/belarus-lukashenko-hijack-plane-precedent-dictators/618971/


It's two people, and I'm not sure what you can do about it. No doubt sanctions will be utilized, but in the end I think this ends up like the journalist killed by the Saudis.

It has been called the first state-sponsored hijacking.  No doubt, Protasevich and Sapega are goners, but in response the European Union has forbidden all flights originating in Europe to land at Minsk, and it has refused to accept any air traffic originating from Minsk.  Belarus is effectively persona non grata.

Vladimir Putin is a good friend and ally of Belarus dictator/strong-man, Alexander Lukashenko, and will likely allow flights to be diverted to Moscow, where they can take the short hop to Minsk.

Original Quill wrote:It has been called the first state-sponsored hijacking.  No doubt, Protasevich and Sapega are goners, but in response the European Union has forbidden all flights originating in Europe to land at Minsk, and it has refused to accept any air traffic originating from Minsk.  Belarus is effectively persona non grata.

Vladimir Putin is a good friend and ally of Belarus dictator/strong-man, Alexander Lukashenko, and will likely allow flights to be diverted to Moscow, where they can take the short hop to Minsk.

Yup, and like the Saudis, he has something Europe needs.

About to start a pipeline to Germany now that Jefe Jose has given it his blessing.

Complicated old world..