Posted on 05/23/2021 5:45:30 AM PDT by ameribbean expat
The Ryanair plane was en route to Vilnius when it was diverted to Minsk. The opposition says the move was a bid to arrest a journalist on board who is critical of Lukashenko's government. A journalist known for his critical reporting on the Belarus government is being held at an airport in Minsk after his Lithuania-bound flight was forced to land, opposition figures said on Sunday.
Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said the journalist in question is Raman Pratasevich, who "faces the death penalty" in Belarus.
(Excerpt) Read more at amp.dw.com ...
Nordstream...
Is Lithuania Nato?
Sounds like an act of war requiring a multinational response.
Way more legal than Ghaddafi’s Lybia.
Yes. Lithuania is a NATO member. Ryanair is based in Ireland, which is not a NATO country.
An act of war sort of like disrupting the fuel supply on America’s east coast? What will Biden give Russia this time in tribute payments?
Was going to say - we know Biden’s out of touch with reality, but I hadn’t heard of him signing a waiver for an overpriced, overrated department store mostly frequented by old people. :P
We forced down the Bolivian presidential plane the same exact way because we thought Snowden was on it.
And no, we don’t need WWIII over Ryan Air.
This is Belarus, which is a sovereign country. Technically they are part of a “union state” with Russia but for all intents and purposes they are considered peers. They are definitely not part of Russia. What does Nordstream have to do with anything?
Lukashenko is in dire need of a 7.62mm attitude adjustment. I sincerely hope he gets it. Soon.
At first glance it doesn’t look pretty, because disrupting international flights doesn’t seem like a legit law enforcement method to get a fugitive criminal.
On the other hand, the story is spinned by the mainstream media in a very biased way.
According to the original reports the captain of the plane itself sent a distress call and requested landing in Minsk over violence on board or a bomb threat.
That makes a huge difference with the ‘official’ story pushed by Lithuania, saying the plane was intercepted by a fighter jet and forced landed.
The first story is still a little bit fishy, because there might be valid suspicions that the distress was provoked for the purpose to make the plane land on the Belarusian territory indeed.
That is the ground for investigation to find out what was really the case.
Unless there would be direct evidence to the complicity of the Belarusian government in the incident, everyone registering outrage needs to shut up.
Not that long time ago Ukraine in coordination with FBI planned the similar operation against a Turkish Airlines flight from Minsk to Istanbul, planning to intercept the plane and arrest a bunch of ‘Wagner mercenaries’ who in fact has been Donbas rebels. It failed to work due to a gross incompetence on the Ukrainian intelligence, leaked the plan to the Belarusian counter-intelligence and media. Nonetheless, the same propagandists praised the Ukrainian plan, saying how great it was and it only failed due to ‘the Russian moles’ in administration.
Before calling Belarus a ‘rogue country’ which needs to be ‘expelled from ICAO’ they better look at their own failed state, although I understand it is not going to happen in the era of the Orwellian double standards.
The big difference is that in the Belarusian incident all we have is mere suspicions, in the Ukrainian situation everything is clear, yet, nobody is calling to expel Ukraine from ICAO for some reason.
Not to mention that the person detained in Belarus is a terrorist insurrector, the people Ukraine tried to arrest in the similar fashion are merely legit combatants formerly belonging to a rebel group.
All in all, I can’t exclude a provocation by the Ukrainian intelligence, to discredit Minsk as a host of Donbas peace talks.
“diverted to Minsk.”
Rochelle, Rochelle.
We now know that 6 people weren’t returned to the plane. Two were the journalist and his girlfriend and 4 were Russian citizens one of these being the guy starting the trouble on board.
This likely means there were 4 Russian hijackers on board and that means it is not just something Lukashenko cooked up on his own, but Putin is in on it too.
... or of course it might just be Russian mercenaries Lukashenko hired.
“This likely means there were 4 Russian hijackers on board and that means it is not just something Lukashenko cooked up on his own, but Putin is in on it too.”
Good thing Biden is getting tough by letting the Russians build their gas pipeline.
(eye roll)
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