Politics Protests in Belarus
- Thread starter berkut76
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EASTERN EUROPE
Why was a passenger jet diverted to Belarus? It wasn’t a bomb threat.The West is outraged that the country’s authoritarian leader used deception to make an Ireland-based airliner land so that a 26-year-old blogger could be arrested.
Vladimir Isachenkov Associated Press
Western outrage grew Monday against Belarus over its forced diversion of a passenger jet to the capital of Minsk in order to arrest an opposition journalist in a dramatic gambit that some said amounted to state terrorism or sheer piracy.
The Biden administration condemned the “shocking act” of diverting a flight to detain a journalist.
Here is a look at what happened in the sky over the former Soviet republic and the aftermath of the incident.
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE FLIGHT?
Ryanair Flight FR4978, traveling Sunday from Athens to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, was in Belarus air space about 6 miles from the Lithuanian border when it changed direction and turned toward the Belarusian capital of Minsk
Ryanair said Belarusian flight controllers told the pilots that there was a bomb threat against the jetliner and ordered them to land in Minsk. The Belarusian military scrambled a iG-29 fighter jet to escort the passenger jet in an apparent attempt to encourage the crew to comply with the orders of flight controllers.
Once the Ryanair plane landed, Belarusian security agents detained two passengers — Raman Pratasevich, who ran a popular messaging channel that was a thorn in the side of President Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’ authoritarian leader; and Pratasevich’s Russian girl
friend, Sofia Sapega, who studies at a Vilnius university. One passenger later told AFP that Pratasevich looked “very much afraid” and another told a Lithuanian reporter that Pratasevich was visibly trembling.
Belarusian agents with dogs also checked the plane and the passenger luggage, and eventually let the flight continue to Vilnius hours later.
The CEO of Ryanair, an Ireland-based budget airline, described the move as “a case of state-sponsored hijacking … state-sponsored piracy.”
Ireland’s premier, Taoiseach icheál artin, called the forced landing a “state-sponsored coercive act” that was “absolutely unacceptable.”
WHY DID BELARUS DO IT?
To arrest Pratasevich, a 26-year-old activist and journalist who left Belarus in 2019 and faced charges there of inciting riots. A blogger, he co-founded Nexta, a popular channel on the Telegram messaging app that was a key factor in organizing protests in Belarus after a presidential election in August 2020.
Lukashenko, who has run the nation of 9.3 million with an iron fist for over a quarter century, was declared the winner by landslide, but the opposition and some election workers say the vote was rigged. Months of protests followed, representing the strongest challenge to Lukashenko’s rule since he took over in 1994 following the demise of the Soviet Union.
The Belarusian authorities have unleashed a brutal crackdown on demonstrations. more than 34,000 people have been arrested since August, including opposition activists, and thousands have been beaten and abused by police.
The U.S. and the EU have imposed sanctions on top Belarusian officials.
Pratasevich, who might be facing the death penalty, on Monday night was seen on Belarusian state television confessing to organizing mass disturbances.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Western nations and the U.N. have called for the release of Pratasevich.
EU leaders on Monday, called it a brazen “hijacking” and agreed on a set of sanctions against Belarus, including a ban on the use of the 27-nation bloc’s airspace and airports.
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Russia refuses to allow European planes to land in Moscow
Retaliation over Belarus airspace row results in cancellation of flights from French and Austrian carriers
Organ grinder chips in
Russia refuses to allow European planes to land in Moscow
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Russia refuses to allow European planes to land in Moscow
Retaliation over Belarus airspace row results in cancellation of flights from French and Austrian carrierswww.theguardian.com
Organ grinder chips in
Russia refuses to allow European planes to land in Moscow
There were two flights - from Paris and one from Vienna. If the aviators decide to change the flight trajectory, a new permit must be obtained. Austrian Airlines and Air France had a permit with a route through Belarus. But they decided to take a detour. Most likely, both the French and the Austrians simply did not have time to get a new permit. But it was their choice - to fly or not to fly through Belarus. This is not Moscow's decision.
Balts have a history of "hurting" their enemies at the cost of Baltic citizens' pockets.
It's like that "stop hitting yourself" joke, but with the victim and the bully being the same person.
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More and more "self-confessions" on State-run TV. The guy who was hijacked from his flight was also forced to praise Lukashenko while crying for his crimes. Margarita Simonyan is still not happy:
And for those who don't know who is that mythological hag, she is the editor-in-chief of RT, and RT is the shithole where nicememe digs his talking points about Ukraine, Belarus, Baltics and the West.
Btw, you can't have a complete soviet regime without banning your people from traveling abroad. So it's time for a check mark on that too.
www.bbc.com
And for those who don't know who is that mythological hag, she is the editor-in-chief of RT, and RT is the shithole where nicememe digs his talking points about Ukraine, Belarus, Baltics and the West.
Btw, you can't have a complete soviet regime without banning your people from traveling abroad. So it's time for a check mark on that too.
Belarus bans most citizens from going abroad
The travel restriction follows an international outcry over Belarus's diversion of a Ryanair jet.
www.bbc.com
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Raman Pratasewicz on government television. The oppositionist's father: they forced him to say what was needed - Polish News
They broke it, forced him to say what was needed – says Raman Pratasiewicz’s father, assessing his son’s interview on the Belarusian state television. An activist and journalist arrested in Minsk criticized the actions of the Belarusian opposition in an interview on Thursday. He made accusations...
www.polishnews.co.uk
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Raman Pratasewicz on government television. The oppositionist's father: they forced him to say what was needed - Polish News
They broke it, forced him to say what was needed – says Raman Pratasiewicz’s father, assessing his son’s interview on the Belarusian state television. An activist and journalist arrested in Minsk criticized the actions of the Belarusian opposition in an interview on Thursday. He made accusations...
Did they use fluggegecheimen
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Apparently, one prosecutor tried to investigate violence against protesters. Of course, Lukashenko's thugs came to his apartment and took him as well:
В Минске разгромили квартиру бывшего сотрудника прокуратуры. Сам он задержан
Неизвестные в масках разгромили квартиру бывшего сотрудника прокуратуры Евгения Бабака.
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Roman Protasevich: House arrest for man seized in Ryanair Belarus jet drama
Belarus opposition journalist Roman Protasevich was taken from a plane with his girlfriend.
www.bbc.co.uk
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Kind of disturbing to think that 777s full of illegals are coming in with no controls. Not all of them are going to be "good, fine people".
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Imagination is a powerful tool used by fake news but where are photos and/or videos evidence of "Hundreds of Iraqis" on the Belarus border?
Belarus dictator floods EU with migrants in retaliation for sanctions
Four flights from Baghdad land in Minsk airport every week, and some of the planes carry as many as 600 passengers each
www.telegraph.co.uk
Belarus dictator weaponizes illegal migrants against EU
Kremlin-backed Belarus dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka has recently begun weaponizing migrants in his escalating confrontation with the European Union and neighboring countries Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania.
www.atlanticcouncil.org
Sorry this made me laugh.
Using poor innocent migrants to push their Belarus Dictator narrative. What about Germany's Dictator causing an influx of migrants into EU? Or what about Hungary's Freedom Fighter fights against Dictatorial Migrants?
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Yeah, somehow couldn't help myself but think "wait, hold on... didn't the same thing happened with Merkel and Erdogan? You know, Turkey blackmailing the EU and letting hundreds of thousands of migrants in? And, incidentally, letting terrorists come and go?"
Heard Lithuania wants to build a wall to stop the illegal migrants from entering.
l o l
I hope that wall will be tall enough I will be able to see it on the horizon all the way from Vilnius. Maybe all the Belarussian political activists flying planes will crash into it.
l o l
I hope that wall will be tall enough I will be able to see it on the horizon all the way from Vilnius. Maybe all the Belarussian political activists flying planes will crash into it.
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CNN presents old artillery warehouse as secret belarusian gulags xD
edition.cnn.com
The 25th arsenal of rocket and artillery weapons
Belarusian dissidents fear the regime will put them into detention camps. It may have already built one | CNN
Three layers of electrified fence. New security cameras. A military guard and a sign saying "Entry forbidden." Windows with bars and reflective glass, on newly refurbished barrack buildings. All empty, bar the occasional security officer, deep in the forest of authoritarian Belarus.
The 25th arsenal of rocket and artillery weapons
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