New sanctions against Belarus
As a consequence of the forced landing of a Ryanair jet and the kidnapping of an opposition member in Belarus, the European Union is imposing new sanctions on the regime of dictator Alexander Lukashenko. The Belarusian Belavia airline is no longer allowed to take off and land at airports in the EU. She is also no longer allowed to use the airspace. In addition, property freezes and EU entry bans are to be imposed on other supporters of the regime.
These are tough measures that are well-intentioned, as are the many sharp words from the EU in the direction of Minsk. The question now is whether Lukashenko will be impressed this time. He has been in power for a good 30 years, and none of the western sanctions have brought him down so far. As long as Lukashenko on the Support from Moscow can bet, he will probably not be seriously afraid of the EU or the USA.
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What Lukashenko is really afraid of is the overthrow caused by the masses on the street. His main goal is to maintain power, so he has to become more and more repressive. In his methods he is becoming more and more similar to his great protector and role model, Vladimir Putin. With the Ryanair hijacking, Lukashenko is demonstrating that he will persecute anyone who dares to stand up against him, regardless of loss. It is the old KGB school: Enemies are hunted to the furthest corners of the world, they die of poison or under “mysterious” circumstances. Eat or be eaten is Lukashenko’s motto.
Then, when the West becomes outraged, obvious fairy tales are invented. The subsequent declaration from Minsk that they had received a Hamas bomb threat for the Ryanair flight is just as grotesque as the offer from Belarus to invite international experts for an “investigation.” There are no independent studies in autocratic regimes; they are difficult enough in democracies.
Anyone who hopes for quick solutions in dealing with Minsk and Russia is likely to be disappointed. In dealing with these regimes, in addition to targeted sanctions, only diplomacy, support for the democracy movements and a lot of patience help.
Biden-Putin meeting scheduled for June
Despite these gloomy events, there is also such a thing as hope for an improvement in relations between Russia, Belarus and the West. American and Russian negotiators have held preparatory talks for a possible summit meeting between US President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin in the past few days. If nothing else comes up, the two of them could get together in Europe in June. The UN headquarters in Geneva is named as a possible place for a discussion.
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The idea for the meeting came from US President Joe Biden, who announced a few weeks ago that he wanted to talk to Putin in order to normalize the relationship between the two sides. Among other things, topics such as Ukraine, sanctions, Iran and disarmament could be discussed at the summit. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his administration’s goal is a stable, predictable relationship with Russia. That certainly couldn’t hurt. In the relationship between Moscow and Washington, the old rule has always been true: Talking is better than shooting.
Trump is being forgotten on social media
A good five months have passed since the storm of a wild Donald Trump mob on the Capitol in Washington. Now the last soldiers of the National Guard who were on guard there until now are due to withdraw. The US capital is returning to normal, and almost at the same time, interest in Donald Trump seems to be waning significantly. The Washington Post found out that the ex-president rarely appears on social media, for example. An analysis of data from important platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit or Pinterest has shown that the occupation of users with the Trump topic has declined by an incredible 96 percent since January.
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Both Facebook and Twitter are known to have deleted Trump’s accounts from their platforms. Trump’s attempts to circumvent this ban have so far hardly been fruitful. He started his own blog (“From the Desk of Donald Trump”), but according to the Washington Post, the site hardly generates any traffic. On Facebook, content from the blog is only shared a good 2000 times a day. In terms of the number of so-called visits, the Trump webpage was estimated to lag behind the recipe page Delish and the Petfinder portal, which provides dogs and cats from the animal shelter.
Loser of the day …
… is the EU Commissioner for Transport, Adina Valean. In the crisis surrounding the Ryanair passenger jet, which was forced to land by Belarus, she confirmed what, unfortunately, had already become apparent in the corona crisis – not necessarily only the best work at the top of the EU in Brussels.
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Apparently Valean lost track of things a little during the crisis. After it was already clear all over the world that the regime’s henchmen had kidnapped the blogger Roman Protasewitsch from the plane, the commissioner announced via Twitter that the plane would continue its flight from Minsk to Vilnius – and gave the impression that everything was in perfect order.
“The Ryanair plane just took off from Minsk in the direction of Vilnius. Great news for everyone, especially the families and friends of the passengers on board, ”she announced happily. She did not say a word to Protasevich.
Then someone in the Commission in Brussels apparently noticed what the Commissioner had spread. The Belarusian action was sharply condemned via Valean’s account. The kidnapping was outrageous and Protasevich had to be released, the commissioner announced hours later – roughly as the last politician in the EU.
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I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Roland Nelles
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