Russian, Belarusian presidents discuss diversion of Ryanair flight

MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart, Aleksander Lukashenko, discussed on Friday the diversion of a Ryanair flight carrying a journalist who was wanted by authorities.

Lukashenko, who arrived in Russia on a working visit, met Putin at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in Sochi.

Referring to the emergency landing of the passenger plane in Belarus after a bomb notice on May 23, Lukashenko said some countries were "emotional” about the issue.

Stressing that the European airspace was closed for Belarus state airline Belavia, he said there were no Belavia planes involved in the incident.

He said there are attempts to shake up the situation in Belarus, referring to demonstrations in August 2020 after presidential elections.

Reminding that a Syrian passenger plane, which went to Damascus from Moscow, made a forced landing in Turkey on suspicion of carrying military cargo in 2012, he said it is “the right of sovereignty."

Putin noted the plane of Former Bolivian President Evo Morales, flying from Moscow, was forced to land in Vienna in 2013. He said nobody reacted to that incident.

Turning to bilateral relations, Putin said: "Russia remains the key trading partner of Belarus in the first quarter of the year. Bilateral trade grew by 18.4%. This is a very good trend. It is important to preserve it.”

On May 23, a Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS flight from Athens to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, landed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, because of a bomb threat, and Roman Protasevich, a journalist wanted for involvement in "terrorism incidents," was reportedly detained.

During a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, identified a Russian woman, who was detained alongside Protasevich, as Sofia Sapega.

Protasevich is the founder of a social media news channel, which reportedly played a major role in protests last summer in Minsk demanding the resignation of Lukashenko after he was awarded a sixth term in a presidential election.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar