Today, the European diplomatic service invited the Belarusian ambassador to the European Union (EU) to convey to him the condemnation of the European institutions and EU member states after the "impermissible" diversion of a passenger plane to Minsk and the arrest of a Belarusian opposition member who was on that flight, according to an EU statement published today.
On the other hand, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today assessed Belarus's approach to criticism as "reasonable" after the interception of a Ryanair commercial flight that led to the arrest of opposition members, passengers on that flight.
Related Articles
At the summit of the European twenty-seven tonight, new sanctions against the government of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko should be discussed after that incident.
Belarusian authorities arrested opposition activist Roman Protasevich yesterday, after the plane he was on was diverted to Minsk, allegedly due to a bomb threat.
Lukashenko announced that he personally ordered a MiG-29 fighter to escort the Ryanair plane, which was flying from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, to Minsk airport. The incident was condemned by both the United States of America (USA) and the EU.
At a press conference in Sochi, Russia, Lavrov said that the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced today that it is "ready to follow all international regulations, guarantee total transparency, including accepting, if necessary, international experts.
"It is a completely reasonable approach," Lavrov said in a joint address to the media with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias.
Lavrov said that Russia supports that there should be no hasty assessments of the situation, but that they be based on all available information, and he assessed that it is "important" to act while maintaining "coolness".
Bonus video:
