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Belarus 'diverts Ryanair flight to arrest journalist', opposition says

• stevespang 5y ago
  Belarus dispatches MiG-29 fighter jet to corral RyanAir flight bound for Lithuania - - - - forcibly diverted to Minsk . . .
  • iso1210 5y ago
    The followup should be civilian aircraft avoid flying in Belarussian airspace
  • bombcar 5y ago
    Note to self: when wanted by a country don’t overfly said country or it’s allies.
    • laurent92 5y ago
      Obviously. I’ve also heard that, when you have been rejected for a US visa, you cannot fly from Canada to Latin America, because you cannot fly over the US. Was the plane over Belarus, though?
      • tyingq 5y ago
        "Was the plane over Belarus, though?" Yes: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/fr4978#27cce9a2 https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/fr4978#27cce9a2
      • ryanlol 5y ago
        This is not correct. But if you are facing federal charges you probably do not want to do that.
      • bombcar 5y ago
        If it was sending Migs into neighboring airspace that’d be even more of an international incident. To be precise that’s if you’re rejected for a visa - just to transit you don’t need one so it’s best not to apply.
  • mLuby 5y ago
    Would the fighter have shot down the airliner if it hadn't complied? Seems like enforcement options are quite limited for such fast-moving, fragile vehicles.
    • Spooky23 5y ago
      As the pilot of the airliner full of passengers, would you choose to find out?
      • markvdb 5y ago
        The pilot must have had a range of options. Some of them might have risked the shooting of the plane. Others might have stalled, embarassed and/or documented this attack by Belarusian forces. I had a formative experience regarding the game of chicken years ago. It might look very much off topic at first sight, but please read on and decide for yourself. When I was in secondary school, bored teenagers repeatedly threatened local school bombings, causing the repeated evacuation of several schools. Never the one I went to school at. I later learned why from my father, a teacher at the school. The school did receive bomb threats just like the others. The school head did warn the police. After a short discussion with them, he firmly and politely informed them that our school would not be evacuated, and that was that. He was - and is, at 87- a quiet and soft spoken man, a well respected member of society, but definitely not afraid of a game of chicken.
        • Spooky23 5y ago
          I think your example is very apropos, but people won't just go voluntarily "die on a hill" without support. My guess would be that the gentleman running the school in your example was widely respected and had a solid relationship with his appointing authority (school board, upstream executive, etc) -- they had his back. Does Ryanair offer that type of confidence to pilots as commanders of their aircraft?
    • GekkePrutser 5y ago
      KAL007 proves it's not a good option to play chicken with military jets.
  • tomp 5y ago
    I wonder how they even knew who was no board... Are airlines forced to share the passenger list with every country they fly over? That's news to me, and seems like an unacceptable intrusion of privacy...
    • pavlov 5y ago
      The journalist was being followed by Belarussian KGB agents in Athens, and they boarded the flight with him. They didn't need passenger information from the airline. (They kept the name KGB in Belarus.)
      • isbvhodnvemrwvn 5y ago
        Name and methods.
    • deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
• pydry 5y ago
  I wonder if they picked this idea up after seeing the attempt to capture Snowden by grounding morales' plane.
  • dnautics 5y ago
    while clearly an asshole move, "grounding" morales' plane did not involve fighter jets coercing the plane down.
    • pydry 5y ago
      Why did you use quotes?
      • cblconfederate 5y ago
        the plane technically had to land in austria after all other countries refused entry for 'technical' reasons. This one involved KGB agents who coerced the flight to divert by claiming there was a bomb
        • ghostwriter 5y ago
          what was the basis and the motive for ally countries unilaterally not to allow the plane to land? If the motives are not different, then the fighter jet could be seen as a similar "technical reason" in this case too.
          • relativ575 5y ago
            Mental gymnastic you are doing there. Spain and France denied the airspace, meaning the flight couldn't gone through either of them. There is no "not to allow the plane to land". In fact an airplane calling emergency has priority to land anywhere, regardless of the political difference with the host country. On this topic, this happened with a flight from a US's air base in Afghanistan, rerouted to Iran because of a "bureaucratic issue": [0] - https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-iran-aircraft/u-s-says-plane-from-afghanistan-landed-in-iran-over-bureaucratic-issue-idUSL1N0R627Q20140905 https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-iran-aircraft/u-s-says-p...
• alkonaut 5y ago
  What sanctions are left to use? Asset freezes and travel sanctions weren’t enough. Total export sanctions to the west? They sell some fuel etc. and EU is a large trading partner.
  • snvzz 5y ago
    Total isolation would be a start.
    • GekkePrutser 5y ago
      I would agree, but the problem is that such sanctions hurt the population the most. This is not a good choice in dictatorships as the population has no choice who to vote for. The regime top clique will keep eating well off smuggled imports, while the general population will starve.
      • snvzz 5y ago
        >but the problem is that such sanctions hurt the population the most. This sort of coexistence has been attempted and patently failed. It's their population, not ours. An important distinction. We (rest of the world, but particularly Europe) need to get stricter.
        • pdpi 5y ago
          What does that achieve, though?
          • jiofih 5y ago
            Pressure to stop pulling this kind of bs if they want to remain a viable economy in Europe. Honestly, I wish the next step would be for NATO to step in and restore the country to a legitimate government. Between this, Syria, Lebanon, Ukraine, China, Israel, the world has been way too conivent with the destruction of democracy.
• d0ne 5y ago
  This precedent can not allowed to stand. It is a direct attack against free speech and international sovereignty regardless of your affiliation.
  • antocv 5y ago
    Did you say the same thing when US downed a diplomatic flight by Bolivian president in 2013? Honestly, did you say this is not allowed to stand? To down a presidents plane in Vienna just because US thought Snowden was on that flight? Answer truthfully.
    • GekkePrutser 5y ago
      I thought this should not stand yes. Not sure if I said so publicly at the time. I was less active on fora. PS: I am a Snowden supporter though :) I think he did us a great service. I'm not American but he exposed the extent to which our details are shared with US intelligence agencies.
    • vitno 5y ago
      Whataboutism is a lazy rhetoric device, the term was literally coined by Kasparov about Soviet dictator apologists.
      • antocv 5y ago
        This is literally not a whatabout since we are discussing the same actions here, forcing an airplane down and breaking international laws, norms and traditions. Let us try to decide if some of the posters here are hypocrites or not.
        • vitno 5y ago
          Whataboutism, also known as whataboutery, is a variant of the tu quoque logical fallacy that attempts to discredit an opponent's position by charging them with hypocrisy without directly refuting or disproving their argument. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
• GekkePrutser 5y ago
  Time to close Belarus airspace for western traffic IMO.
  • Ekaros 5y ago
    Don't think that is exactly practical for many flights... Specially around Eastern Europe...
    • raverbashing 5y ago
      At some point, it doesn't matter. Qatar was doing massive detours a couple of years ago to keep flying (of course money wasn't an issue for them) But detouring Bielorussia might be even cheaper than forced landings, who knows.
    • rebuilder 5y ago
      Who would want to fly over Belarus now?
      • arodyginc 5y ago
        I have no problem flying over there, lol
        • Jeff_Brown 5y ago
          Probably lots of other individual people too. Perhaps the bigger question is which airlines would want to. Unless Ryanair's reputation takes a big hit, I'm guessing the answer is all of them.
    • GekkePrutser 5y ago
      It wasn't practical for MH17 to fly around the Donbass either but it would have prevented a terrible tragedy. And there flights weren't even officially targeted. This flight was intercepted by an armed military jet. From there it can quickly escalate in the event of a misunderstanding.
    • 5y ago
• sbelskie 5y ago
  An absolutely terrifying breach of international laws and norms.
  • tgv 5y ago
    I'm afraid it's simply a terribly crooked use of those.
    • chki 5y ago
      No, it's certainly not. If the bomb threat wasn't real (and I would definitely doubt that it was) that's a violation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Art. 5.
      • jiofih 5y ago
        Even if it was real, odds are it would’ve been planted for exactly the same purpose.
      • ivan_gammel 5y ago
        Even if it was real, the distance from destination was nearly the same as from Minsk. There was no reason to divert the plane.
        • vbezhenar 5y ago
          Lukashenko was trying his best to protect Europe from evil bomb. Can't blame him.
      • djbebs 5y ago
        Good thing Belarus isn't a signatory to that convention and therefore it does not apply to them. Their territory, their rules.
        • detaro 5y ago
          https://www.icao.int/secretariat/legal/List%20of%20Parties/Chicago_EN.pdf https://www.icao.int/secretariat/legal/List%20of%20Parties/C...
• shmerl 5y ago
  New airspace piracy precedent. Gallows should be the proper ending for potato führer who ordered this.
  • senko 5y ago
    This is not new.
• maze-le 5y ago
  Only about 40km from the border: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/fr4978#27cce9a2 https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/fr4978#27cce9a2 I wonder what would have happened if they just delayed until they were in lithuanian airspace. EDIT: just realized there were fighter jets involved...
  • rjsw 5y ago
    Why would NATO do anything about an aircraft from a neutral country ?
    • throw0101a 5y ago
      > Why would NATO do anything about an aircraft from a neutral country? The aircraft's registration is SP-RSM, which is Polish: * https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/fr4978#27cce9a2 https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/fr4978#27cce9a2 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_registration_prefixes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_registration_... Poland is a member of NATO. Also, Lithuania and Greece, the source and destination of the flight, are also both in NATO.
      • tyingq 5y ago
        I assume a Ryanair flight would also have had a lot of citizens of NATO countries on-board. I wonder what would have happened if it were a US flagged carrier.
      • rjsw 5y ago
        My point was that Ireland relies on being surrounded by NATO countries but doesn't contribute anything to the costs of protecting their own airspace. TBF, it is making noises about maybe getting some fast jets at some point.
        • throw0101a 5y ago
          > My point was that Ireland Ireland is not involved in this conversation. All elements are related to NATO countries. Even the airline, Buzz (aka Ryanair Sun), which is the legal owner of the aircraft, is headquartered in Poland: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_(Ryanair) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_(Ryanair) * https://www.planespotters.net/airframe/boeing-737-800-sp-rsm-ryanair-sun/e2wd5d https://www.planespotters.net/airframe/boeing-737-800-sp-rsm...
• halukakin 5y ago
  Very sad day for democracy.
• Sebb767 5y ago
  > Belta, the state-owned news agency in Belarus, said Mr Lukashenko had personally given the order for the plane to land at Minsk following the bomb alert, and that a MiG-29 fighter jet had been despatched to accompany the Ryanair plane. Interesting framing
• brabel 5y ago
  Lukashenko is showing he's willing to go to great lengths to silence opposition and free press completely in Belarus. Arresting opposition party leaders before elections for made-up accusations is par for the course in Belarus... but now he has been doing the same not only to his enemies, but to any newsagency that dares to as much as hint at criticizing his brutal regime, as he's just done with tut.by[1], the now former largest independent news portal in the country. The EU has shown no determination to put a brake on Lukashenko's abuses and has been completely passive so far on the matter. The USA, in my opinion, should show leadership and step in to make it clear that such affront against democracy on a neighbour of its closest allies will not be tolerated. Poland and Hungary (not to mention Turkey a bit further away) are already leaning dangerously close to the kinds of abuse of power only seen in dictatorships, and letting Belarus get away with this international provocation will just make it even more clear that the great powers don't care enough to defend democratic rights anywhere outside their own borders, and they are free to go ahead with their own crackdowns on freedom of expression and disregard of human rights. [1] https://emerging-europe.com/news/belarus-shuts-down-largest-independent-news-portal-arrests-staff/ https://emerging-europe.com/news/belarus-shuts-down-largest-...
  • Waterluvian 5y ago
    I suspect the U.S. is already responsible for making this behaviour more common. Can certainly try to make up for it, but I think great damage has been done.
    • sthnblllII 5y ago
      You dont make up for being a brutal expansionist empire by being a "kinder gentler" expansionist empire. Until there is regime change in the US nothing it does will be good for anyone but its own ruling class.
  • paiute 5y ago
    They/we could start by removing the fisa courts.
  • pydry 5y ago
• publicola1990 5y ago
  Thing is the BBC article seems to depend largely on an article from a Belarus newspaper, which I doubt has undergone some mangling in translation. Can anyone knowing Russian post an accurate summary of it: https://www.belta.by/president/view/komandu-prinjat-v-minske-zaminirovannyj-samolet-ryanair-dal-lichno-lukashenko-442580-2021/?/2874 https://www.belta.by/president/view/komandu-prinjat-v-minske...
  • dan-robertson 5y ago
    You can find various English-language summaries on Twitter from the (exiles) opposition, eg https://mobile.twitter.com/TadeuszGiczan/status/1396446650718117890 https://mobile.twitter.com/TadeuszGiczan/status/139644665071... or https://mobile.twitter.com/franakviacorka/status/1396429666374782981 https://mobile.twitter.com/franakviacorka/status/13964296663...
• madmaniak 5y ago
  One of the last countries with existing government. Good job! The "journalist" was supporting west baked revolution to ruin and bring down this country to the level of other post soviet countries - which took this path before. And there is no free speech here and other media.
• ac42 5y ago
  Vladimir!
• protoman3000 5y ago
  I’m wondering, what kept them from outright shooting the plane down instead of lying about a bomb on board?How would the public have found out about what happened?
  • michaelmrose 5y ago
    Potentially war that drags in the Russia, the EU, NATO and ultimately the US.
  • jasonwatkinspdx 5y ago
    NATO has very heavy radar and ELINT coverage over that area, due to proximity to Kaliningrad. An intercept and shoot down would have been observed. Since the aircraft is Polish registered, and flying from Greece to Lithuania, it would be viewed as a direct attack on NATO. This more mild strategy worked perfectly: Lukashenko gets to execute a political threat on trumped up charges, and there's essentially zero risk of a reprisal other than further sanctions, which were going to happen anyhow. This is one of the reasons why I wish US/NATO had taken a stronger stand vs Russia's hybrid warfare tactics.
  • protoman3000 5y ago
    These are interesting and good points. They also will probably torture the arrested journalist and try to get information out of him. Can’t speak if dead.
• belatw 5y ago
  Lukashenko is destined to meet the same fate as Nicolae Ceaușescu. This was an attack on Lithuania, Greece and Ireland. How many more times will western governments bend over as Putin and other tin pot soviet dicktators shoot down or hijack flights?
  • type0 5y ago
    Highly unlikely, the worst that he might get is some type of Pinochet treatment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet#Post-dictatorship_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet#Post-dictator...
• anotheryou 5y ago
  It's really grim: - Flight EU to EU - fake bomb threat - possibly forced to divert to minsk airport by a fighter jet (wasn't the nearest airport) - potential death penalty for targeted journalist
• upofadown 5y ago
  Here is a relevant ICAO document: * https://www.wing.com.ua/images/stories/library/ovd/9433.pdf https://www.wing.com.ua/images/stories/library/ovd/9433.pdf So I guess the Belarus government would try to claim whatever agreement caused this part: >1.2.1 Pilots-in-command of civil aircraft should be aware that interception may take place in the event that military,customs or police authorities of a State: >... >d) suspect that an aircraft is engaged in illegal flight and/or transportation of illicit goods or persons, inconsistent withthe aims of the Chicago Convention and contrary to the laws of said State. >... I note there there is nothing in there about a bomb threat. So the bomb threat was likely a separate gambit that didn't work. This seems to be quite insane either way. If an interception goes bad the result could be the destruction of the civil aircraft. Not worth the potential risk, no matter who might be on the flight.
  • Aperocky 5y ago
    It's probably a calculated gambit, they bet the pilot would budge and follow the fighter. If the pilot didn't I doubt they'd actually shoot the plane down, but that's a bet that they took and won. The pilot obviously chose the safer option for himself and almost everyone onboard.
  • vbezhenar 5y ago
    What is illicit person? So according to (d) Belarus could intercept that aircraft just to extract that journalist as an illicit person?
    • upofadown 5y ago
      From the now updated article: >Ms Tikhanovskaya said Mr Protasevich, 26, had left Belarus in 2019 and covered the events of the 2020 presidential election with Nexta, after which criminal charges were filed against him in Belarus. >She said he faced the death penalty in Belarus as he has been categorised as a terrorist. So the charges were pre-concocted. They didn't have to make any up at the last moment.
• kensai 5y ago
  This is an incredible assault on EU right. A flight leaving EU soil, arriving to EU soil was diverted and forced to land on a country essentially ruled by a strongman, in order to arrest an opposition journalist. Of course Lukashenko has the backing of Putin, so it is a slippery slope. I wonder how the EU will react. This is a major transgression.
  • seppel 5y ago
    > This is an incredible assault on EU right. A flight leaving EU soil, arriving to EU soil was diverted and forced to land on a country essentially ruled by a strongman, in order to arrest an opposition journalist. Note that the EU did something similar: The forced Evo Morales to land in Vienna (on a flight from Moskow to Bolivia) because they suspected Snowden on the flight.
    • tpmx 5y ago
      Not EU, but some of the EU member countries (France, Spain, Portugal and Italy). They denied flyover permission to that aircraft, causing it to divert. Since it was heading for Bolivia it obviously had enough fuel to go back to Moscow, if needed - for instance if Snowden had actually been onboard. The thing that happened today (faked bomb alert and landing order accompanied with a fighter jet escort) is not on the same level.
      • adolph 5y ago
        Is a window with different dressing not the same window? Does the window matter or the dressing? Belarus is clumsier than the US but the game is the same.
        • ars 5y ago
          A threat of violence is a very large difference, I would not call that just window dressing. Also lying (fake bomb threat) is a big difference. It's like the difference between someone stealing your wallet, vs. letting you play some kind of street game where you don't actually have a chance of winning. The method employed matters, it's not just about the final result.
• echoradio 5y ago
  I would think launching fighter jets to force the landing of a passenger plane is considered an act of aggression. How will that play out with NATO, of which the origin/destination countries are a part of?
  • kensai 5y ago
    That as well. They freaking sent a MiG-29 to accompany the plane with the fake excuse to find a "bomb"...
    • bombcar 5y ago
      https://onemileatatime.com/bomb-threat-el-al-787-fighter-jet/ https://onemileatatime.com/bomb-threat-el-al-787-fighter-jet... A similar situation from a few weeks ago.
  • avereveard 5y ago
    >How will that play out with NATO they will send a strongly worded letter, no doubt about it
  • belatw 5y ago
    They will send Thoughts and Prayers.
  • kstenerud 5y ago
    Usually it follows the four stage strategy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSXIetP5iak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSXIetP5iak
  • rich_sasha 5y ago
    In emergency situations it is totally normal to send fighter jets, less so as killing machines, more as agile planes with pilots skilled at close-quarter flying. The fighter pilots can assess the situation, guide the pilot (perhaps with a broken radio or other trouble?) down to safety. Or if it is hijacked and aimed at a nuclear plant, probably then shoot it down. This happens everywhere. Of course this is a very convenient coincidence here that a random emergency happens with a wanted man in board...
• supergirl 5y ago
  big outrage from europe. makes sense. but were they also outraged when US diverted Bolivia’s presidential plane thinking Snowden was on board? can’t blame Belarus for thinking this is the norm
  • jessaustin 5y ago
    The best reaction from the West would be to release another persecuted journalist, Julian Assange, from his unlawful and unjust imprisonment. Then we could all condemn Belarus in good conscience.
• varispeed 5y ago
  Wow something like this should be ruthlessly stamped out by the international community.
• spoonjim 5y ago
  I don’t travel much anymore, but when I did I definitely made a point to select routes that avoided flying over basketcase countries. With the number of planes that have been shot down over war zones, or things like this, it’s often feasible.
  • varispeed 5y ago
    As medical cannabis patient, I certainly avoid any routes that could potentially land (e.g. because of technical issue) in a country that is anti-disabled people. edit: why is this being downvoted? Certain countries have harsh drug laws and couldn't care less whether the use is legitimate or not. Even if you don't have any medication on you, but you have metabolites you can get yourself in prison. This should be called out, but it seems like people have succumbed to prohibitionist propaganda.
    • AdrianB1 5y ago
      I don't know why you were downvoted, but your argument is disingenuous: the anti-drug laws are not anti-disabled people, this is probably a borderline case that was not considered in the legislation. Fake self-victimization may be why you were downvoted?
      • varispeed 5y ago
        I am disabled and can't live without this medication as otherwise it makes pain unbearable. Some states don't recognise medical use and can imprison people who have metabolites in the system and are legitimate medical users. Just because the catchment area of such law is slightly broader than targeting just the disabled, it does not mean these states are not anti-disabled if they prevent disabled people from use of medication. I find your comment absolutely insensitive and disgusting. Please educate yourself.
        • AdrianB1 5y ago
          I find your attitude as entitled and dishonest; that law did not target disabled people, so you cannot say it is anti-disabled people, it is just a side-effect. It's that simple.
• zokier 5y ago
  Would be interesting to hear the communication between Minsk and the airplane here. For example did the captain make the decision to land solely based on the (false) bomb threat, or was there something more going on. Like were they informed that fighter(s) were dispatched? I mean it is obviously very bad to make false bomb threats, but its still very different than forcing by threatening to shoot the plane down.
  • Jeff_Brown 5y ago
    It might be. But political actors are good at leaving plausible deniability regarding their true motives: "We've dispatched a fighter jet to help you find your way to the landing strip."
  • jaza 5y ago
    I imagine the comms would have been something like this: Minsk Control: FR4978 please divert immediately to Minsk due to potential bomb threat. FR4978: Minsk Control, by our readings we are closer to our destination Vilnius than to Minsk. By the way, can you explain why a Belarusian fighter jet is flying alongside us? (silence) FR4978: Minsk Control, do you copy? (silence) Minsk Control: We said PLEASE. (silence) FR4978: Ohhh-kay then. Minsk it is!
• praptak 5y ago
  There won't be any serious consequences unless Putin agrees to it. And his main focus is probably "No second Ukraine".
• stelliosk 5y ago
  Greece describes it as a 'state hijacking'. https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1161646/greek-foreign-ministry-plane-diversion-is-state-hijacking/ https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1161646/greek-foreign-mini...
  • tpmx 5y ago
    The president of the EU Commission does the same: https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1396566441370001413 https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1396566441370001413 The outrageous and illegal behaviour of the regime in Belarus will have consequences. Those responsible for the #Ryanair hijacking must be sanctioned. Journalist Roman Protasevich must be released immediately. EUCO will discuss tomorrow action to take.
  • one2three4 5y ago
    Very accurate description IMO. I hope no EU company flies over Belarus after that. In retrospect this is an unacceptable risk. PS: Which also brings to mind the downed Malaysian flight when flying over Russian-friendly Ukraine. I hope that airlines also have these areas in their no-fly lists.
• stelliosk 5y ago
  Greece describes it as a 'state hijacking'. https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1161646/greek-foreign-ministry-plane-diversion-is-state-hijacking/ https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1161646/greek-foreign-mini...
  • krcz 5y ago
    Polish prime minister calls it an "act of state terrorism": https://twitter.com/MorawieckiM/status/1396486258747183106 https://twitter.com/MorawieckiM/status/1396486258747183106
• zihotki 5y ago
  Just a story from the history. Plane of Bolivian president was forced to land in Viena in July 2013 in order to search for Snowden after France and Portugal forbid it flying through their air space. I strongly belive that Russian propaganda will use that incident as a leverage. To be clear, I highly despise the Belarusian regime and I'm in full support of opposition. I could only hope that EU will do something in return but it looks like it's a standard way of handling the people politically considered to be terrorists. It's not the way it should be done neither by Belarus nor especially by US/NATO if they want to hold the peacekeepers flag. Otherwise it's just double standards and politics.
  • emn13 5y ago
    Evo Morales's plane was not forced to land in Vienna; it chose to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident What did happen was that countries caved to US pressure to deny even the possibility of snowden passing through their airspace. While that's absurd and a rather impolite thing to do; the moral issue there small or non-existant; denying a foreign diplomatic delegation the right to enter your territory is... perfectly OK, even when your motivations are at best dubious. The fact that the plane even landed in Vienna at all might have been a (successful) PR stunt, since: An audio tape was subsequently released which appeared to be a recording of the flight crew requesting to land in Austria on the grounds they "could not get a correct indication" of their remaining fuel levels." - really? How convenient. In any case it's nothing at all like the current case, except that it involved planes landing where they weren't originally headed for, due to political interference. Of course; superficial resemblances might be enough in the battlefield that is public perception. Edit: and if you read some of the other perceptions here e.g. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/07/03/evo-morales-controversial-flight-over-europe-minute-by-heavily-disputed-minute/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/07/03... - this all sounds like a rather convenient storm in a tea-cup. Given the convenience to Evo Morales, it all looks rather suspicious.
    • vkou 5y ago
      How the pressure was applied is far less relevant than the intent behind it, and the accomplished results. The how only matters to questions of legality, not questions of morality. Yes, or no - should airplanes in flight be forced down so that third-party countries can make political arrests? The EU seems to think that the answer to that question is 'Yes'... As long as it's done by it, not to it.
• throwitaway1235 5y ago
  Most of these Western journalists function as intelligence operatives with instructions to foment coups in non-West aligned states such as China, Venezuela, Iran, Russia and Belarus. The tech community is brilliant in some things but hopelessly naive in others.
  • juanani 5y ago
    It seems there is a positive correlation with intelligence and gullibility. I mean, you're so smart that you can program and count monies, this is because you are likely a modern day god which no one has figured out yet, and no mortal can fool your godly brain powers. Also, people everywhere on television seem to agree with your views, confirms your godlike logical thinking powers. All hail moneys!
• adolph 5y ago
  On 1 July 2013, president Evo Morales of Bolivia, who had been attending a conference of gas-exporting countries in Russia, gave an interview to the RT television network in which he appeared predisposed to offer asylum to Edward Snowden.[1] Snowden had fled the United States a month earlier after his disclosure of secret, widespread surveillance by the NSA, for which he faced criminal charges in the United States. The day after his TV interview, Morales's Dassault Falcon 900, carrying him back to Bolivia from Russia, took off from Vnukovo Airport, but was rerouted to Austria when France, Spain, Portugal and Italy reportedly denied access to their airspace, allegedly due to suspicions that Snowden was on board. On 3 July, Jen Psaki, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, acknowledged that the U.S. had been "in contact with a range of countries across the world who had any chance of having Mr. Snowden land or even transit through their countries". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident
  • deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  • newacct583 5y ago
    Whataboutism is not an excuse. Also denying airspace passage is a solution in the DIPLOMATIC realm, which is how we want this sort of thing to be handled. Right? What happened here is that they deliberately let the plane into their airspace, faked a bomb threat, forced the plane down with air power while it was en route to a nearer city, and then arrested a political opponent. Sorry, that's just terrorism. (But yes, the way Snowden was treated was bad too. Still, this is much worse.)
    • adolph 5y ago
      Precedent came before whataboutism. Diplomacy is war by other means. https://libquotes.com/zhou-enlai/quote/lbg9n9m https://libquotes.com/zhou-enlai/quote/lbg9n9m
      • hilbertseries 5y ago
        Sure if words don’t have meaning then there’s no difference here. In Snowden’s case they knew that Snowden could not leave Russia, without being detained and potentially extradited. If Snowden was extradited he would be tried and go to prison, probably. Snowden of course shared state secrets, an act he knew was illegal. The activist organized protests and his plane was hijacked without prior notice. And now he will likely be executed, for organizing peaceful protests. Grow up.
• zihotki 5y ago
  Let me bring in a story from the history. Plane of Bolivian president was forced to land in Viena in July 2013 in when it was suspected that Snowden is on the board after France and Portugal forbid it flying through their air space. I strongly belive that Russian propaganda will use that incident as a leverage. To be clear, I highly despise the Belarusian regime and I'm in full support of opposition. I could only hope that EU will do something in return but it looks like it's a standard way of handling the people politically considered to be terrorists. It's not the way it should be done neither by Belarus nor especially by US/NATO if they want to hold the peacekeepers flag. Otherwise it's just double standards and politics.
• HatchedLake721 5y ago
  FYI technically it wasn’t a forced landing by fighter jets. “Someone” reported there’s a bomb on the plane while they were in the Belarus airspace, hence they did an emergency landing in Minsk. So while we know who “someone” is and that it’s all planned in advance (the journalist reported that he was followed minutes before take-off), technically speaking the safety protocols were followed, and when landed they arrested a wanted man once he was on their soil. This reminds me of force landing Bolivian president’s plane in the EU flying from Moscow when they thought Edward Snowden was on the plane.
  • tbenst 5y ago
    This article and others report that the plane was instructed to land in Minsk, even though Vilnius was closer. That doesn’t sound like following safety protocols to me
    • croutonwagon 5y ago
      There could be less nefarious reasons for that...such has what ATC was in contact at the time, headwind/tailwind can make a difference in speed/time even if the distance as the crow flies is shorter, or if there was more landing windows in Minsk. It should be considered and questioned, but it may not be nefarious.
      • ruined 5y ago
        you don't need to exercise reserved skepticism here. there was no bomb and we know what happened when the plane landed. you're playing devil's advocate when they've already won
        • tclancy 5y ago
          I’m stealing that line. It feels like the Internet has inspired a subset of people to play for that team and it’s so confusing as to why. I am trying to always “assume good intentions” as a rule now; I think it’s just deep denial about the world we live in and how free we really are.
• mike_d 5y ago
  Visualizations of the flight path: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2EpIuHXEAYf2I4?format=jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2EpIuHXEAYf2I4?format=jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2FLf1MWQAEnMs6?format=jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2FLf1MWQAEnMs6?format=jpg
• rich_sasha 5y ago
  An irony to the story is that Poland (who is a party to this as the registration country of the actual plane, and a self-declared leader of the anti-Lukashenko movement) now demands the EU takes strong actions to secure the EU (Poland)’s security. Literally yesterday prime minister went on record to say they will outright ignore the ruling of the highest EU court on an ecological / energy case (lignite mining close to the Czech border.
  • danielEM 5y ago
    Nice try Sasha! Wondering if you represent Russian or Belarussian regime? Only irony here is that in discussion on the topic of journalist who is facing now death penalty you're bringing somewhat important (but not in this discussion) ecological topic.
    • rich_sasha 5y ago
      Ermmm... what? The genuine irony is how Poland, my home country, within 24hrs went from telling the EU to go stuff itself to begging for help, and seemingly even without noticing the contradiction. For the journalist, I feel very sorry (I don’t know much about him tbh but death penalty is excessive for any crime, even more so for one imagined by Lukashenko). This doesn’t preclude making a wider observation. But surely, this is what my Russian masters told me to say on the major geopolitical forum that is HN. Da svidania.
      • A4ET8a8uTh0 5y ago
        I am not sure I see the contradiction here at all. If the two issues are related, it is in a very tangential manner. I mean no offense, but it sounds like a talking points and not like an actual argument.
        • atq2119 5y ago
          The contradiction is asking for help from the EU on the one hand while not accepting the EU's rulings on the other hand. What GP is criticizing is this attitude of trying to get representation without taxation, to put it in US terms.
• Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
  EU and NATO are too meek to answer this unprecedented act of state terrorism with something stronger than expressing their 'deep concern'. In turn, this will further embolden putin / lukashenko gang to bigger and more outrageous acts. This gang understands only force. Something like a rocket killing a top government official, or seizure of assets. (I say this as a Russian citizen who was recently detained by the police at an anti-Putin protest)
  • cmehdy 5y ago
    You're right that increasingly often the EU is not making a clear enough stance about what it supposedly believes in, and this isn't about trying to act tough but to show some determination to exist around the ideals of its creation. If this event doesn't lead to something significant, it would once more fail at points 2,3,5, and 6 of its core values[0]. As a EU citizen I'm hoping for the long-term success of the EU but not always very confident in it.. All the best to you, particularly courage and luck in the face of what you have to deal with locally.. [0] https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/eu-in-brief_en https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/eu-in-brief_en
  • saba2008 5y ago
    >rocket killing Worst possible choice. Even without taking international costs, it will be best day for propaganda and thus elite. And perfect feed for ultra-nationalistic movements - so even if manages to produce change in government, it will be second Iran, not second Poland. >seizure of assets Best one. After enough mansions are seized and comfortable retirements destroyed, couple of skulls will get caved by a snuffbox and all the geopolitics garbage will be thrown out of the window. With following power struggle, that might even be second chance to form sane government.
    • baybal2 5y ago
      > >rocket killing > Worst possible Reconsider this. This is a 1 man regime, possibly 2-3-4 men regime. Do you want to keep running after gazillions of their bank accounts in Switzerland, and hope they run out of money, or kill the man who holds passwords for, probably, at least half of money for the regime? And look at Norko... There are latest RolceRoyces on streets of Pyongyang.
• MR4D 5y ago
  I wonder if this might be considered an act of war [0]. [0] - https://www.britannica.com/topic/law-of-war/Legally-defining-war https://www.britannica.com/topic/law-of-war/Legally-defining...
• fy20 5y ago
  There are claims that KGB operatives onboard forced the plane to divert - that's a completely different situation from ATC calling the flight to land: https://twitter.com/TadeuszGiczan/status/1396446650718117890 https://twitter.com/TadeuszGiczan/status/1396446650718117890
  • rayrey 5y ago
    Plane is back in the air with 6 less people, the journalist and his girlfriend, and 4 others who may have the KGB agents orchestrating the “bomb threat”
    • odiroot 5y ago
      Maybe EU should consider putting these stooges on some no-fly list.
      • vbezhenar 5y ago
        They probably used fake documents if they're from KGB.
      • kzrdude 5y ago
        How about throw out Belarus of the international aviation treaties? If they misuse air traffic control to misdirect planes, maybe throw them out of the system.
• ilyich 5y ago
  Long live Belarus! Congratulations to Mr Lukashenko and all belorussian people in general on capturing another traitor on CIA payroll whose goal is turning Belarus into another European banana republic like the rest of most ex-eastern block countries. Кирдык скоро вашей Америке!!!
• modularform123 5y ago
  So-called ‘journalists’ carrying water for anti-national forces should, at a minimum, be forced to always watch their backs. The USA, too, has many such traitors operating with impunity.
• tclover 5y ago
  When USA did the same thing to the Snowden jet, nobody said anything. Now watch the reaction of all the US satellites lol, what a fucking clown world...
  • adventured 5y ago
    Your claim is false. The US did not do the same thing to "the Snowden jet." No plane was diverted due to a fake bomb scare to force a landing. The Bolivian President's plane landing was a PR stunt solely for his own self-aggrandizement to be seen as challenging the US, it was not forced to land by the US or by a US fighter jet.
    • alibarber 5y ago
      There were also no civilians on the plane - which by most measures takes it to a different and altogether darker level.
    • tclover 5y ago
      yeah not exactly the same, but worse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident
      • pilsetnieks 5y ago
        Denied to cross airspace is worse than being forced to land at gunpoint?
        • monocasa 5y ago
          Denying enough airspace to a plane already in flight is just as dangerous as a gun to the head, and just as much of a threat. The machinations pretending it's not is what pushes it into being worse.
          • finiteseries 5y ago
• andreasley 5y ago
  Similar incident: On October 21, 2016, Belavia flight B2-840 from Kyiv to Minsk (of all places) was told to immediately return to the departure airport, or fighter jets would be scrambled [1]. They were only 50km from their destination country's airspace. After the plane landed in Kyiv, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies escorted a passenger off the plane. Not quite the same, of course (no third-party country involved and passenger in question was released shortly thereafter), but forcing commercial airliners to land seems to be somewhat more common than I thought. [1] https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/378383.html https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/378383.html
  • 0ld 5y ago
    > Kyiv to Minsk > They were only 50km from their destination country's airspace Just in case, Kyiv is like 75km from Belarusian border
  • kspacewalk2 5y ago
    The major difference of course is that the flight originated in the country ordering the return. Not to mention that they were not inventing a fake bomb to justify it. The Ryanair diversion is a straight-up airplane hijacking.
• jpxw 5y ago
  Let’s say you were a foreign actor who wanted to disrupt Belarus. Calling in a bomb threat of this kind would be a pretty smart way to do it. Of course, it could be much more straightforward than that (it could just be that Belarus did this for their own reasons). But it’s interesting to think about.
  • DangerousPie 5y ago
    That is very clearly not what happened.
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• hellow0rldz 5y ago
  Meh, aren't cross-Atlantic flights potentially re-routed through US soil? Isn't it common that flights to Canada need to make an emergency landing which conveniently allows US customs to filter passengers? Diverting planes seems something that states just do. This time it's a smaller state that uses big boy tools.
  • jefftk 5y ago
    > flights to Canada need to make an emergency landing which conveniently allows US customs to filter passengers? Link?
• slim 5y ago
  This is very bold move. They want his network, that's why this young man is so valuable. I hope the international community will act quickly, that his contacts know what they are doing and are prepared for this situation. Because he's facing torture, and the fact his girlfriend was arrested with him will make things worse. I don't know what to do
  • EugeneOZ 5y ago
    The international community will do exactly NOTHING, as always. Hundreds of people have been tortured in Belarus by a crazy dictator, and nobody actually gives a shit. The only thing they can do is to say how “worrying this situation is”. Leaders without the balls. Maniacs like Lukashenko and Putin will do whatever they want while the only reaction is talking.
    • ptero 5y ago
      What about forcing the plane of the Bolivian president to land in 2013; what that justified? Lukashenko is doing what "international community" did then -- trying to catch an inconvenient person that the state cannot legally reach otherwise. I am not claiming that such things should be left with no response. In fact, I suspect this might hasten Lukashenko's downfall (quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi), but he is just taking a page from the "western civilization" playbook. My 2c.
      • lovecg 5y ago
        > What about… I seem to remember there’s a term for what you’re doing in your post…
        • ptero 5y ago
          Please enlighten me. Ideally, not with a "whataboutism" label, but with a description of why it fits here.
        • whimsicalism 5y ago
          If we're trying to set up international norms, it kinda seems relevant to what those norms are. Are we distinguishing between those two events or are they equally illegal? What should the punishment be?
• baybal2 5y ago
  FYI: Flight manifests are pretty much public data today. Databases of every person flying internationally with passport numbers in last 10 years, or so years go around on onion websites. Thank your "antiterrorism" STAZI, and its well wishers.
• hyko 5y ago
  Wars have started over less than this. How long the democratic nations of Europe permit an autocratic regime in their bosom is an open question…if I was Belarus I’d keep my fucking head down. The thing about a destabilised world order is that it works both ways.
  • vbezhenar 5y ago
    Belarus is backed by Russia. Russia is strong enough to make any attempt of invading Belarus to cost a lot of lives. And invading Russia itself is out of question because of nuclear response. That's how I see that geopolitical situation. War is very unlikely in my opinion.
    • iso1631 5y ago
      > War is very unlikely in my opinion Which is a good thing, War rarely turns out well. An appropiate reaction would be to stop overflights of Belarus - which both eliminates the risk of Belarus forcing down civilian planes, and reduces Belarussian income
    • deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    • dandanua 5y ago
      Waiting when those dictators with nuclear weapons will lose their mind completely can cost even more lives.
    • tomjen3 5y ago
      We don't need to invade Belarus, we just need to, for example, level the airports in the country, something that Russia can't do much against. Not to mention that Russia is no doing very well themselves.
  • throwaway21_ 5y ago
    > The thing about a destabilised world order is that it works both ways. Maybe it took 30 years to become obvious to you but at least you got it - sadly that happened only when you ended being on a receiving end.
• dredmorbius 5y ago
  Noted elsewhere: The Belarus plane hijack is a small reminder why it's generally not a good idea to let governments know who is going to where. I'm not sure why governments that like to think of themselves as democratic don't see the risks. -- Alexander Bochmann https://mastodon.infra.de/@galaxis/106285985254850170 https://mastodon.infra.de/@galaxis/106285985254850170 I'd made a similar point following the assassination of Kim Jung-nam in 2017: Travel and hospitality databases are widely accessible and shared amongst a tremendous number of organisations. State intelligence organisations might readily have access through their own state-run airline, or through private operations or plants within same. Similarly for terrorist, narco-criminal, money-laundering, or other organisations. Financial, banking, and payment-processing systems, only slightly less so. A P.I. license or position on a fraud or abuse desk at a major online retailer, or any skip-tracing agency, can have access to such information. https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/5ud243/data_are_liability_book_your_assassination_now/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/5ud243/data_ar... What is your threat model? Note that your own threat model may not include possibilities which put others at risk. (In fairness, it appear that Protasevich was followed onto the plane itself, suggesting that in-flight availability of manifests played little role. The question of what pre-flight intelligence methods were employed remains open.)
  • stjohnswarts 5y ago
    I don't see this happening though. It would seem reasonable to limit the countries seeing the passenger list to those countries that the plane is taking off from/leaving though.
    • ReptileMan 5y ago
      Except you have the emergency landing possibilities which require cooperation. And after all a country has a right/obligation to know who moves trough its territory.
      • baybal2 5y ago
        Imagine, it wasn't the case prior to mid-nineties. International air travel was possible with paper tickets. Heck, you could've travel, immigrate, and settle all around Europe without papers prior to a certain mentally challenged emperor deciding to ruin it all.
• cblconfederate 5y ago
  Ryanair's statement is utterly nuts. No mention of their missing passengers: https://twitter.com/RyanairPress/status/1396543331878981632 https://twitter.com/RyanairPress/status/1396543331878981632
  • A_non_e-moose 5y ago
    "... which was outside Ryanair's control." No refunds for anyone... Nothing can finish off a corporate announcement better than a Liability Avoidance and Risk Reduction statement :)
    • PedroBatista 5y ago
      It would be out of character for Ryanair to do or say anything different.
      • midasuni 5y ago
        They didn’t charge the passengers extra for the added flight, which is something
  • arcturus17 5y ago
    “Nothing untoward was found and the aircraft and its passengers were cleared to depart” The omissive wording is utterly revolting. While the Ryanair PR people were at it they could’ve taken it a small step forward and said that a few passengers decided to stay as they really enjoyed the sights.
  • V-2 5y ago
    Apart from this jarring omission, they repeat the propaganda claim that Minsk was the closest airport at the time, which is blatantly untrue.
    • AceyMan 5y ago
      aviation nit to pick here— I haven't tried to find the actual flight path, but for a transport aircraft at cruise the "closest airport" would not be underneath the flight's position, but rather at some distance away corresponding to the computed distance to reach the surface in an idle power descent.¹ From 30,000+ feet I'd expect that value to lie around 60–80 miles, iirc. /Acey ¹–ignoring in-flight fires, medical emergencies, etc., that might dictate an unusually steep descent profile.
• jll29 5y ago
  Understandably, people focus about the air maneuvre aspect of this story first. But if you put that aside for a moment and look at things from a higher level perspective: the president of a whole country is SO AFRAID OF A SINGLE YOUNG BLOGGER that he redirects a whole plane, thereby doing a "full Barbara" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect). Never say one person cannot change the world!
  • dragonwriter 5y ago
    Its not the Streisand effect when you are trying to very publicly establish that you will inflict harsh consequences on people doing what the target has done.
    • inglor_cz 5y ago
      This is the "Kill the chicken to scare the monkey" effect. It might be concurrent with the Streisand effect, but it is usually fairly painful for the target. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_the_chicken_to_scare_the_monkey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_the_chicken_to_scare_the_...
• Badfood 5y ago
  Belarusian government controlled medias top story is from 3 days ago, Lukashenko propoganda anticipating sanctions. As if we need more smoking guns: https://eng.belta.by/president/view/lukashenko-urges-to-mull-over-response-measures-west-is-not-interested-in-strengthening-of-eaeu-140093-2021/ https://eng.belta.by/president/view/lukashenko-urges-to-mull...
• abc789654567 5y ago
  Long live Belarus! Congratulations to Mr Lukashenko and all belorussian people in general on capturing another traitor on CIA payroll whose goal is turning Belarus into another European banana republic like most of the rest ex-Eastern block countries.
• rock_artist 5y ago
  I read of some Israeli’s landing in Syria and Iran due to an emergency landing (eg. health emergency, plane malfunction). Similar to an embassy, the onboard territory is based on which country the aircraft is registered to. In the previous cases, the aircrew assured those people they’re in charge of them. So this seems to be a diplomatic incident with Ireland? Two differences though. - low cost company, maybe aircrew are less knowledgeable. - bomb alert.
  • throaway46546 5y ago
    Plane was registered in Poland.
• balunk 5y ago
  Untuk keperluan pribadi Merelakan segala cara
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• notdang 5y ago
  So many words about the situation, but what we should realize is what Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend are going through now. I don't even want to think.
  • 5cents 5y ago
    I wholeheartedly agree. They must have been terrified from the moment it became clear that something strange was happening. It's also terrifying to observe that noone is helping them
• weggg34 5y ago
  I hope the EU will do something and not just as usual express a concern. The entire world is laughing about European weaknesses.
• dzhiurgis 5y ago
  As a response, I'd like each plane flying over Belarus and Russia to be escorted by b52 and f35.
• Shorel 5y ago
  The bigger issue here is... what can Belarusian people do? It seems nowadays any people acquiring power in a smaller country can only care about keeping this power, and nothing else. And any revolutionary movement against dictators in these smaller countries can only hope for the replacement of one oppressive regime with another potentially more oppressive regime. It's a lose-lose situation. And it makes me extremely sad.
• avodonosov 5y ago
  According to Ukrainian journalists, a similar plan was carried out by US and Ukrainian intelligence last summer, when a group on a flight from Minsk to Istanbul was planned to be arrested after forceful landing in Ukraine. The plan was interrupted by Belarus detaining the group before they took the flight, based on an alleged leak from the Ukraine president office. https://jamestown.org/program/the-wagner-affair-in-belarus-and-its-implications-for-ukraine/ https://jamestown.org/program/the-wagner-affair-in-belarus-a... https://censor.net/ru/news/3266959/butusov_lukashenko_primenil_shemu_zahvata_terroristovvagnerovtsev_posadiv_passajirskiyi_samolet_chtoby https://censor.net/ru/news/3266959/butusov_lukashenko_primen... https://en.thepage.ua/news/bellingcat-is-making-a-film-about-ukrainian-special-operation https://en.thepage.ua/news/bellingcat-is-making-a-film-about...
• farss 5y ago
  For the historically curious, state-sponsored skyjacking is not without precedent. Israel appears to have pioneered it: [1] https://www.nytimes.com/1954/12/13/archives/syrian-airliner-seized-by-israel-plane-l0-aboard-is-forced-down.html https://www.nytimes.com/1954/12/13/archives/syrian-airliner-... [2] https://www.wrmea.org/1994-november-december/israel-was-first-nation-to-skyjack-a-civilian-airliner.html https://www.wrmea.org/1994-november-december/israel-was-firs... [3] https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/essays/rokach.html https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/essays/rokach.html
  • etc-hosts 5y ago
    The words on this particular page are probably 100 percent true, but quoting Grover "Stalin Did Nothing Wrong" Furr is very funny
• TedShiller 5y ago
  A fitting international reaction would be to deny Belarus the use of any airspace outside of Belarus.
• failwhaleshark 5y ago
  Beyond what the media says about the obvious authoritarian regime, can anyone Belarusian, or a blogger/source, describe the social climate, socioeconomics, political climate, and day-to-day life? How Soviet / Russophile are some people but not others?
• spicyramen 5y ago
  Most of posts never heard of this Belarus journalist and already making assumptions
• williesleg 5y ago
  Finally fake news asshole gets what they deserve
• pseingatl 5y ago
  Interesting how Western governments and the Media™ have attacked Belarus for diverting and grounding an airliner. Childish minds have forgotten when the US did the same thing, grounding Evo Morales' presidential jet and diverting it to Switzerland because they thought Edward Snowden was aboard. Thank you, USA for showing Belarus the way!
  • nikaspran 5y ago
    It is not even close to the same thing. Please stop lying. Denying entry into airspace is not the same as forcing a plane to land and kidnapping a political opponent.
• thewileyone 5y ago
  That's a hijack, not a diversion ...
• trurl123 5y ago
  Protasevich is not a journalist. He is a fascist and anti-government activist.