4 ms·

But it also risks the agents being arrested if something went wrong (especially since their behavior was outwardly suspicious) and could be seen as a much more

But it also risks the agents being arrested if something went wrong (especially since their behavior was outwardly suspicious) and could be seen as a much more serious aggression since it involved a physical intrusion into the country's territory. I don't get why they even needed agents on the plane at all.

Symbiote 5y ago
Perhaps to avoid a mistake -- they could only expect one chance at this. For a while now, far fewer intra-Schengen flights will overfly Belarus, and people in the journalist's situation will now book two-leg flights to be certain they won't cross Belarus (or Russia).
andyjohnson0 5y ago
> I don't get why they even needed agents on the plane at all. To extract them from Greece (an EU country) and avoid their arrest?
throwawayffffas 5y ago
> I don't get why they even needed agents on the plane at all. They had to be sure he boarded that flight and didn't get off after he boarded. > And could be seen as a much more serious aggression. To me it looks like this was a deliberately not very aggressive way of snatching him. The alternative would be to snatch him of the street and smuggle him to Belarus. The logistics would be a lot harder and the diplomatic implications a lot more dire.