Call for sanctions: Minsk resentment after flight diversion

Monday, May 24, 2021

Call for restrictions
Outrage on Minsk after flight diversion

The talk is of “state terrorism”, with the Belarusian ruler Lukashenko now “supposed to be the culprit”: the forcible diversion of a Ryanair aircraft to Belarus and the arrest of a government critic causing panic in German politics.

The collapse of a Ryanair aircraft forced by Belarus and the arrest of a Belarusian opposition activist have also caused outrage in Germany. “If the information is confirmed, it is an unbelievable case of state terrorism,” said Norbert Rötgen, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, newspaper of the Editorial Network Germany (RND). “It should have clear results,” the CDU politician said.

Katja Leikert, leader of the CDU and CSU deputy parliamentary group in the Bundestag, spoke of “state terrorism”. During the criminal hijacking of a Ryanair passenger plane, “dictator Alexander Lukashenko” has shown that he has lost all kinds of power in Belarus “. Leikert demanded results from the European Union for those responsible. Lukashenko and his environment. The accompanying financial restrictions are “more than appropriate” for business people and companies close to governance.

The FDP is also calling on the Belarusian national airline Belavia to withdraw its landing rights in the European Union. The ruler Alexander Lukashenko was guilty of kidnapping. “Lukashenko crossed a red line with the hijacking of a passenger plane that was en route between two EU member states,” deputy FDP parliamentary group leader Alexander Graf Lambsdorff told RND. “He should be treated as a criminal from now on.”

Manuel Sarrazin, the Eastern European spokesman for the Green Parliamentary Group, called for sanctions against Belarusian state-owned companies. “The European Union should react to this new case and finally approve Belarusian state-owned companies that have already been put on its sanctions list by the US,” he said. The incident suggests that Lukashenko “takes all means to ruthlessly suppress free expression”.

The Ryanair aircraft was on a flight from Athens to Vilnius on Sunday, when it was forced to make an emergency landing by a Belarusian fighter jet. Roman Protasevich, a government critic and former editor-in-chief of the opposition channel NEXTA, was arrested at Minsk Airport, as reported by NEXTA. Government television confirmed the arrest.