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force "an act of military piracy and international terrorism" carried out by "military dictator Lukashenko" and his subordinates. He called for an immediate investigation of the incident.
EU reaction
The reaction from the EU was immediate and outspoken.
“Closely following developments around today’s @Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, which was forced to land in Minsk over an alleged security threat. This is totally inadmissible,” European Union's top diplomat
Josep Borrell said in a tweet as the scandal began to unfold. “We hold the government of Belarus responsible for the security of all passengers and the aircraft. ALL passengers must be able to continue their travel immediately.”
European Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen was also on the wire condemning the actions of the Belarusian government: “It is utterly unacceptable to force @Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk. ALL passengers must be able to continue their travel to Vilnius immediately and their safety ensured. Any violation of international air transport rules must bear consequences.”
Berlin demanded “immediate explanations” from Minsk on the situation around the Ryanair flight and Protasevich detention, Miguel Berger, Secretary of State of Germany’s Federal Foreign Office tweeted a few hours later.
"We need an immediate explanation by the Government of Belarus on the diversion of a Ryanair flight within the
EU to Minsk and the alleged detention of a journalist," he wrote on his EU imposed sanctions on 40 senior Belarusian officials in October 2020 for organising a brutal police crackdown on protesters and repression of the people by security forces to keep incumbent Lukashenko in power. There were many calls on May 23 for more sanctions to be imposed, but clearly the effect of sanctions on the Belarusian economy are limited and Lukashenko has reached a point where he feels he has little to lose from more, but a lot to gain from further terrorising the population.
The head of RT, Margarita Simonyan, was fast on to Twitter to praise the “old man”, with Belarusian authorities saying she was “envious” of his ability to get things done. RT went with an editorial line similar to Belarus’, accusing Protasevich of inciting riots and hatred.
Russia and US to kiss and make up? Blinken and Lavrov meeting in Reykjavik
Ben Aris in Berlin
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counter-
part, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, met on the sidelines of the Arctic Council summit in the first face- to-face meeting between the new Biden administration and the Kremlin on May 19 in an attempt to find a more “stable” relationship.
Both sides have been talking tough as they try to set the terms of a relation- ship for the next four years and redefine rules of the game after the erratic Trump administration.
The Kremlin has been particularly aggressive. After a decade of prepara- tion it appears that Russian President Vladimir Putin feels his fiscal fortress is ready and makes Russia largely imper- vious to sanctions. At the same time, with Russia’s military modernisation that began in 2012 largely complete the
Kremlin also feels it is strong enough to face down US forces both in its own backyard as well as in theatres further afield like Syria and Africa.
Lavrov made the new zero-tolerance
for “economically damaging” sanctions imposed on Russia by the West explicitly
clear in a new rules of the game speech in February and followed that up with
a threat to break off diplomatic rela- tions with the EU if more sanctions were imposed.
The EU has taken the threats seriously and backed off, imposing only symbolic
The Biden and Putin administrations meet for the first time face to face with a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Reykjavik where they began the process of sounding each other out.
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