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Updated May 29th, 2021 at 11:53 IST

Lukashenko seeks Putin's support amid flight spat

Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Friday hosted his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko for talks on closer union ties amid Belarus' bruising showdown with the European Union over the forced diversion of a passenger jet to arrest a dissident journalist.

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Friday hosted his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko for talks on closer union ties amid Belarus' bruising showdown with the European Union over the forced diversion of a passenger jet to arrest a dissident journalist.

Lukashenko has found himself increasingly isolated after flight controllers told the crew of a Ryanair plane to land in Minsk because there was a bomb threat against it.

No bomb was found once the place was on the ground, but 26-year-old journalist Raman Pratasevich was arrested along with his Russian girlfriend.

EU leaders denounced it as a hijacking and piracy and responded by barring Belarusian carriers from the bloc's airspace and airports and advising European airlines to skirt Belarus.

The bloc's foreign ministers sketched out tougher sanctions on Thursday to target the country's lucrative potash industry and other sectors that are the main cash-earners for Lukashenko's government.

Speaking at the start of the meeting in Sochi, Lukashenko ranted about the EU sanctions, describing them as an attempt to reignite the opposition protests sparked by his re-election in August that the Belarusian opposition rejected as rigged.

In an emotional tirade, the 66-year-old Belarusian leader bemoaned the EU sanctions against the Belarusian flag carrier, Belavia, pointing at its role in carrying "thousands and thousands" of travelers from the EU nations and the US who were stranded abroad at the start of the pandemic.

Putin nodded in sympathy, pointing at a 2013 incident in which a private plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales landed in Vienna after several European nations had refused to let it cross their airspace purportedly over speculation that Edward Snowden who leaked classified US government information was on the plane.

Austrian and Bolivian officials disagreed over whether the plane was searched after landing before resuming its journey.

Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who disclosed classified information about government surveillance programmes, has ended up in Russia that has granted him asylum to avoid prosecution.

The showdown over the flight's diversion has pushed Lukashenko, who has relentlessly stifled dissent during his rule of more than a quarter-century, even closer to his main ally and sponsor, Russia.

 

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Published May 29th, 2021 at 11:53 IST

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