Britain on Monday banned Belarus flag carrier Belavia and said Russia was likely complicit in the forced landing in Minsk of a civilian jet to detain a dissident journalist.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps also said he had told the Civil Aviation Authority to instruct UK aircraft to avoid Belarusian airspace, “in order to keep passengers safe.”
Shapps suspended the operating permit of Belavia, which flies daily direct flights from Minsk to London Gatwick, and operates other flights to London Heathrow via Paris in a code-share with Air France.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he had summoned the Belarusian ambassador in London to register anger over the “reprehensible” incident and “flagrant breach of international law.”
He said London was mulling further sanctions on the regime of strongman Alexander Lukashenko, and the episode involving the Ryanair plane will be raised when Britain hosts G7 leaders at a summit next month.
“In reality we’ve got a number of levers but let’s not pretend they’re a silver bullet,” he told parliament, noting Britain had already sanctioned nearly 100 individuals linked to the Lukashenko regime since “rigged” elections last year.
Asked if there was evidence linking Lukashenko’s allies in Russia to the forced landing and arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich, Raab said: “We don’t have any clear details on that.”
“But it’s very difficult to believe that this kind of action could have been taken without at least the acquiescence of the authorities in Moscow.”
(c) The Moscow Times
“Britain on Monday banned Belarus flag carrier Belavia and said Russia was likely complicit in the forced landing in Minsk of a civilian jet to detain a dissident journalist.”
Great news, rapid sanctions against Luka’s terrorists. It begs the question, if sanctions can be applied so quickly, without “consulting” partners, why two years after the fact, are we still waiting for the UK to sanction Putin over the attempted murder of the Skripals? Are Russian rubles worth more than Belarus rubles, or are there more of them?
When the evil Putler regime goes down they won’t just lose Crimea forever, I think they will lose Kaliningrad too. They got chased out of Yemen the same way and I don’t think the neighborhood wants Moskali nukes there anymore.
It should be very simple to find out who got off that plane in Minsk. I have $20 on them being Russians. Luka doesn’t have the brains to pull a stunt like this.
I think most of Luka’s guys are supporting the Opposition.
There is a very long list of Russian murders on British soil, as well as the attempted murder of the Skripals, which killed an innocent British woman and ruined the life of a British police officer. An Irish pianist working at the hotel where Litvinenko was murdered also got polonium poisoning and barely survived.
Here are just a few :
Scot Young: defenestration
Boris Berezovsky : staged hanging
Alexander Perepilichny: poisoning made to look like natural causes.
Badri Patarkatishvili : faked heart attack
Yuri Golubev : poisoning
Stephen Moss ‘heart attack’
Stephen Curtis : mysterious helicopter crash
Three friends and business partners of Mr Young all mysteriously ‘committed suicide’: Paul Castle, Robbie Curtis, Johnny Elichaoff.
‘Body in the bag’ murder: Gareth Williams; a GCHQ officer ‘coincidentally’ investigating money laundering by putler associates.
Long list of murders, short list of sanctions unfortunately.
Related : Brian Bonner has an article that looks good. It’s behind a paywall. Are you able to access it?
https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/brian-bonner-the-7-stages-of-western-concern.html
I just got an article from Kyiv Post, so I can’t get another just yet.
OK I managed to get it. Will post shortly.
Maybe some of those murders benefitted British politicians? Could this be a trail worth following? Frankly, I have to think this way when seeing such a long list of killings with a slap on the wrist as a consequence. This situation is well beyond being ludicrous. It’s extremely suspicious.
This hijacking is only the latest of a crime spree committed by mafia land and Mini-Me. I have so much anger in me about this, in part because I already know that this affair will have the USUAL fluffy-fairy, gooey marshmallow, CO2-laden type of outcome. Hard consequences for such a blatant crime? Forget it! The West disgusts me to no end!