Putin dismisses Belarus’s plane ‘Highjack’: What you need to know

Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin. Inset: Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega. Picture courtesy : Reuters

• Last Sunday Belarus forced Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania to and in Minsk, Belarus. Belarus authorities arrested Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega before letting the flight go. Roman was accused of organizing mass protests against the ruling government.

• Today Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the story by simply dismissing it.

• Mr. Putin accused the west of ‘double standards’ and referred to the incident in 2013 when the US was hunting down Edward Snowden, who seemed shelter in Russia.

• In 2013 a plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was diverted to Vienna in an attempt to hunt Snowden. Putin said that at that time, there was complete silence from the EU.

• Russia is the closest ally of Belarus. These two are the two parts of the Union State.

• The EU has asked the European airlines to avoid Belarus airspace and marked it as ‘unsafe’. UN’s civil aviation agency also said that they will investigate the matter.

• Meanwhile Russia, in response, has refused Moscow-bound Air France and Austrian Airlines flights to access its airspace.