Moscow:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday defended a choice by Belarusian authorities to divert a Ryanair passenger flight carrying an opposition activist who was arrested.
The flight from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land in the Belarus capital Minsk Sunday on the orders of strongman Alexander Lukashenko following a supposed bomb scare.
One of the flight’s passengers, wanted opposition activist Roman Protasevich, was detained in Minsk airport.
Western leaders named the incident an “act of state terrorism” and the EU was anticipated Monday to toughen sanctions against Belarus.
Lavrov told journalists that Belarus had treated the incident with an “absolutely reasonable approach”.
“A representative of the Belarusian foreign ministry… stressed the readiness of the Belarusian authorities to act on the issue in a transparent manner and to follow all international rules,” Lavrov stated for the duration of a press conference following a meeting with his Greek counterpart.
“I think this is an absolutely reasonable approach.”
He named on the international neighborhood to “soberly assess the situation”.
Earlier Monday, authorities in Belarus insisted they had acted legally when they diverted the flight. They as an alternative accused the West of creating unfounded claims for political causes.
Protasevich, 26, is a Belarusian journalist and activist.
Together with co-founder Stepan Putilo he had till lately run the Nexta telegram channel that galvanised and directed large protests against Lukashenko’s disputed re-election to a sixth term in August 2020.
Last year, Protasevich and Putilo have been accused by Belarusian authorities of a quantity of crimes which includes organising mass riots. Protasevich left the Nexta project last year.
He faces a sentence of up to 15 years in Belarus.
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