Putin, Lukashenko Are Reluctant Authoritarian Bros

Foreign Policy ^ | June 21, 2021 | Vladislav Davidzon

[tlozo]

It’s not clear what drove Belarusian strongman Aleksandr Lukashenko to force down a Ryanair passenger jet transiting through his national airspace last month and to kidnap dissident journalist Roman Protasevich from it. But it’s clear who’s on his side in the resultant outcry: his ambivalent patron Russian President Vladimir Putin. Even as Europe has suspended flights to Belarus, Putin has kept airspace open on the eastern side of the border and threatened retaliatory action against the European Union. The codependent, if unequal, relationship between Minsk and Moscow is now set to deepen, especially after the European Union and United States introduced sweeping new sanctions.

It first became apparent to me Lukashenko would do anything to retain power when he flew over a crowd I was standing with in a helicopter in August 2020 in Minsk. He was peering out of the doorway with rifle in hand. Lukashenko may have assumed the European Union was simply feckless and would do nothing or he may no longer have cared about the national airline, the Belarusian economy, or any outside relations bar his situational allies in Moscow. Belavia, the Belarusian national flag carrier, has now been banned from most of its neighbors’ airspace and can no longer fly into the EU...

But renewed isolation is further binding the Lukashenko regime to Russia, which would like nothing more than to tamp down protests and further assimilate the nation while stripping its assets—such as Belaruskali, a potash fertilizer company, or Minsk Tractor Works—at minimum political and economic cost. Two weeks ago, Putin and Lukashenko met for a visibly awkward weekend of socializing aboard a Russian yacht on the Black Sea. The comradely fraternization seemed to have been woodenly feigned on both sides, but the spectacle made the mutual understanding they will sink or swim together...

[PIF]

Putin, Lukashenko Are Reluctant Authoritarian Bro

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With the passage of SB1 Biden will join the club - but not reluctantly ...

[No_Mas_Obama]

Foreign Policy is a Deep State rag sheet. President Putin represents his NATION. America ought to try it.

[tlozo]

President Putin represents his NATION. America ought to try it.

"President" Putin is also a "President for Life" like Lukashenko.

[mac_truck]

It’s not clear what drove Belarusian strongman Aleksandr Lukashenko to force down a Ryanair passenger jet transiting through his national airspace last month and to kidnap dissident journalist Roman Protasevich from it.

Lets see...there was a credible bomb threat made against the plane and Roman Protasevich had an outstanding warrant against him for attempting to overthrow the government of Belarus.

American strongman Joe Biden should understand these things, no?

[tlozo]

there was a credible bomb threat made against the plane

LOL, a credible bomb threat that was sent AFTER the plane was ordered by Belarusian air traffic control to land in Minsk.

"“We haven’t seen credible evidence that the Belarusian claims are true,” ProtonMail, a privacy-focused provider, said in a statement. “We will support European authorities in their investigations upon receiving a legal request.”

A European intelligence official shared a copy of the email with The Washington Post. The time stamp on the email indicates it was sent 24 minutes after the Ryanair flight crew was ordered by Belarusian air traffic control to land in Minsk, despite the plane being much closer to Vilnius’s airport at the time."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/belarus-lukashenko-plane-email/2021/05/27/895b59d6-be5d-11eb-922a-c40c9774bc48_story.html

[mac_truck]

Did the Swiss email company focused on "privacy" share that information with the CIA also, or just their newspaper of record?