3 ms·

I'd say banning Belorusian airlines after Belorus hijacked a plane (and kidnapped passengers) is like having your kid kidnapped and proclaiming that the kidnapp

• newsbinator 5y ago
  Friendly sidenote: people from the country of "Belarus" call themselves "Belarusians" (pronounced like "bela-roo-sians", not like "bela-russians" / "belo-russians").
• matkoniecz 5y ago
  Still, better that welcoming kidnapper and his family for the birthday of younger sister. And I expected such behavior, so I am pleasantly surprised.
  • andrepd 5y ago
    Just shows how we have very low standards.
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• tpm 5y ago
  Not really, because here the hijacker is not one-dimensional, the EU still has options to meaningufully retaliate. Really meaningful retaliation however would also hit Russia as this thing was orchestrated by them, by for example finally stopping Nordstream.
• toyg 5y ago
  They also sanctioned involved individuals. It's more like a family kidnaps their own kid while he was at your birthday party, and as response you get a restraining order and freeze some of their bank accounts.
  • jopsen 5y ago
    The citizenship of the victim doesn't really matter. You're are not the property of the country where you are a citizen. Especially, not if you live abroad.
    • toyg 5y ago
      Are you saying a kid is the property of his family...? Anyway, citizenship matters, it is one of the many elements that determine jurisdiction. The US taxes and prosecutes (!) his citizens anywhere in the world, for example; and extradition is a thing. Legal protection to a foreign citizen abroad is extended by the host country, and that's really what the problem is here: the journalist was effectively protected by European law at all times (going from EU country to EU country with a EU airline), but Belarus invaded our legal space with a competing jurisdiction claim and enforced it with guns and subterfuge. That cannot be allowed.
      • jopsen 5y ago
        > Are you saying a kid is the property of his family...? Hehe, I'll admit that's not a good argument. > but Belarus invaded our legal space with a competing jurisdiction claim... They violated an international convention on to which they had signed. In turn it seems reasonable that we no longer extend any benefits pertaining to said convention. Which is sort of exactly what we're doing.
      • Dylan16807 5y ago
        > Are you saying a kid is the property of his family...? As far as kidnapping or any other kind of forced movement goes, yes basically.
        • toyg 5y ago
          I think you'll find quite a few legal systems currently disagree with that perspective. I'll give you that it's often the traditional perspective, but the children's wellbeing is increasingly the leading priority of related legislation in developed countries, including on issues like forced movement.
• dougmwne 5y ago
  It wasn't one of the EU's citizens, it was a Belarusian citizen. They are a sovereign country with the full backing of Russia. I would say this is the minimum the EU needed to do, and probably some sanctions on the leadership as well. It's hard to do much more without further deteriorating relations with Russia. I prefer to avoid a tank war in Eastern Europe, thank you very much.