“The issue of the second tranche of the government loan has finally been resolved,” Russia’s Interfax news agency reported, citing information from Lukashenko-loyal colleagues. By convention, the $1 billion debt is denominated in Russian rubles. Belarus owes much more to its large neighbor, including gas supplies.
Putin and Lukashenko also agreed to open new flight routes from Belarus’ national airline Belavia to Russian cities. Belavia aircraft are no longer welcome in many western countries after the regime in Minsk diverted a Ryanair flight under false pretenses (bomb threat) on 23 May.
On board, among others, was the dissident journalist Roman Protasevich. He was taken from the plane after the state hijacking with his girlfriend Sofia Sapega and captured. Their fate is feared, as are the many other arrested opponents of Lukashenko.
The ‘last European dictator’ now only has Putin as an ally. His spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Saturday that both leaders mainly talked about “economic cooperation” and the “fight against the corona pandemic”. The Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius with a forced stopover in Minsk has also been discussed. Lukashenko has detailed what happened on board, but according to Peskov he has also been told that the fate of Sapega does not leave Moscow indifferent. She has Russian nationality.
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