Russia refuses to allow European planes to land in Moscow
Retaliation over Belarus airspace row results in cancellation of flights from French and Austrian carriers
Daniel Boffey in Brussels and Luke Harding
Thu 27 May 2021 17.16 BST
Russia has retaliated against a ban on carriers entering Belarus’s airspace by refusing to grant permission to European planes flying to Moscow.

In an apparent escalation by the Kremlin, Russian aviation authorities forced Austrian Airlines to cancel its flight from Vienna to the Russian capital. Air France also cancelled its Paris-Moscow flight for the second day in a row, after it was denied permission on Wednesday to land in Russia.

Both carriers had posted new routes bypassing Belarus. The move follows the “hijacking” on Sunday of a Ryanair plane flying between Greece and Lithuania, and the arrest of two passengers onboard, the journalist Raman Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... -hijacking

This has the makings of spiralling out of control. Russia has an awful lot of airspace with European carriers going through it from China, Japan, South Korea etc.

Now we know that Lukashenko had Moscow's approval for this stunt.

Doc67 wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 8:13 am This has the makings of spiralling out of control. Russia has an awful lot of airspace with European carriers going through it from China, Japan, South Korea etc.

Now we know that Lukashenko had Moscow's approval for this stunt.

This was inevitable. Only to get worse with additional escalation between EU and China. The world is heating up, not cooling off.

Doc67 wrote: ↑Mon May 24, 2021 5:24 pm All to get a blogger off the plane. This is going to put Belarus on the shitlist of the EU, the UK and the US.

....

so, anytime any of us is on a plane just flying over the airspace of country we have criticized online

we are liable to arrest.

This will destroy international travel if allowed.

Multipox wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 9:25 am

Doc67 wrote: ↑Mon May 24, 2021 5:24 pm All to get a blogger off the plane. This is going to put Belarus on the shitlist of the EU, the UK and the US.

....

so, anytime any of us is on a plane just flying over the airspace of country we have criticized online

we are liable to arrest.

This will destroy international travel if allowed.

This is precisely why they will have to come down hard on this. If Belarus releases the blogger quickly it can probably be defused. But if they parade him in a show trial with a forced confession or, worse, kill him, all bets are off.

There are a lot of authoritarian regimes in this world who will be paying close attention to the cost/benefit outcome of this situation.

Wouldn't someone like to have Mr Rainsey fly to Thailand.

Arget wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 11:33 am Wouldn't someone like to have Mr Rainsey fly to Thailand.

Should he ever pay a visit to a country near here, he better be very sure of the flight path. And definitely no Chinese airlines.

Cambodia is quite a good analogy. It is small and inconsequential, it has an all powerful leader and it has a very powerful friend to back them up. Their friend might approve of plucking people out of the sky now and then.

Where's the Dalai Lama these days?

Chuck Borris wrote: ↑Tue May 25, 2021 9:33 am Western hypocrisy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/bo ... story.html

Fair Point.

Doc67 wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 11:44 am

Arget wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 11:33 am Wouldn't someone like to have Mr Rainsey fly to Thailand.

Should he ever pay a visit to a country near here, he better be very sure of the flight path. And definitely no Chinese airlines.

Cambodia is quite a good analogy. It is small and inconsequential, it has an all powerful leader and it has a very powerful friend to back them up. Their friend might approve of plucking people out of the sky now and then.

Where's the Dalai Lama these days?

Now before we book a flight, we had better check the flight path.
Kiwi has flight maps and the airlines probably do
Cheapoair does not. Don't know about Skyscanner...

Now Putin will have to back down on refusing EU planes or they will do the same to him. Disaster for Russia.
Then he will have to tell his poodle in Minsk to release the blogger.
But nobody will admit anything.