State hijacking – VG

On Tuesday morning, NATO Stoltenberg reported the incident to “State hijacking”, and demands immediate release of the two arrested.

– The action was dangerous and unacceptable. This was a state hijacking and shows how Belarus is attacking fundamental human rights and independent media, Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Brussels with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on Tuesday morning.

According to Stoltenberg, the NATO Council, the ambassadors from all NATO member countries, will discuss the incident later on Tuesday.

Requests isolation of the regime

On Tuesday morning, the news agency AFP reports that opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who lives in exile, is asking to be invited to the G7 summit in Britain in June. She also wants the United States to increase pressure on Belarus and President Alexander Lukashenko.

Yesterday, she reportedly spoke with Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan. According to NTB, during the conversation she asked the United States to “isolate the regime and push it through sanctions”.

At a press conference shown on her own twitter account on Tuesday morning, Tikhanovskaya says that the hijacking, as she also refers to it, is a result of a lack of reactions to the regime.

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– Therefore, there must now be severe reactions. This is the time for action. I ask that the United States participate in an international investigation into the hijacking. I request that Belarus be suspended from the International Civil Aviation Organization (IATA) and from the Interpol cooperation. I ask that sanctions be discussed at the G7 meeting, says the opposition leader.

She believes that closing the airspace to Belarusian airlines does not solve the problem.

– The problem is that the choices are rigged. It is a threat to European security. The only solution is free choice. We ask for sanctions against the regime and its business community, says the opposition leader.

Reactions

Yesterday, the United States went out and condemned Belarus’ actions this weekend forced a Ryanair plane with regime-critical journalist Roman Protasevich on board to land i Minsk.

The plane was actually on its way from Athens in Greece to Vilnius in Lithuania when the crew on board was notified by the Belarusian authorities of a possible security threat on board. Fighter planes were used to force the passenger plane to the unwanted stopover.

Protasevich was arrested along with his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega.

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The world community has reacted with disgust to the event orchestrated by dictator Lukashenko.

EU countries shall agree on sanctions. They have already decided that Belarusian airlines will not be allowed to use airports in EU countries or European airspace.

Biden: – Scandalous incident

The United States has also reacted.

– The United States strongly condemns the forced redirection of a flight between two EU countries and the subsequent arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich in Minsk. We demand his immediate release, said Foreign Minister Antony Blinken yesterday.

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Earlier today, a statement came from President Joe Biden, who said he supported sanctions against Belarus.

“This scandalous incident and the video that Mr Protasevich appears to have been forced to put up with are shameful attacks on both political dissidents and the press,” Biden said, referring to a video in which the regime critic apparently confessed to being behind the riots in the country. , but as several experts think he has been forced to say.

You can watch the video of the “confession” here:

G7

Svetlana Tikhanovskaja still wants Biden and co. puts further pressure on Belarus. At the same time, she is asking to be invited to the G7 summit, which will be held in Carbis Bay in the UK from 11 to 13 June.

The head of state from the seven countries Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Great Britain and the United States will meet there. EU leaders are also present at the G7 meetings. In addition, Australia, India, South Korea and South Africa are guest countries during this year’s G7.

Whether it will be relevant to invite the opposition leader in Belarus remains to be seen. So far, the hosts, Britain and their Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have not commented on Tikhanovskaya’s call.

AFP writes, however, that they have sources that French President Emmanuel Macron wants to invite her.

Requests for immediate release

One of those who will attend the G7 meeting is the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. On Tuesday morning, she tweeted a video of herself condemning the act of forcing the Ryanair plane down.

“An attack on freedom of expression. An attack on European sovereignty. Roman Protasevich & Sofia Sapega must be released immediately “, she writes.

Belarus has been marked by widespread demonstrations over the past year, torture and drap of opposition in the last year, after President Alexander Lukashenko last autumn once again declared himself the winner this winter. Lukashenko goes by the nickname “Europe’s last dictator”.

VG told the story of one of the killed and his girlfriend last year:

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