US announces sanctions against Belarus over diverted plane scandal

The United States has announced that it will impose sanctions against Belarus, whose leader Alexander Lukashenko was received by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin amid the international scandal caused by the diversion of a commercial flight on Sunday to detain a political opponent in Minsk.

“The forcible diversion by Belarus, under false pretenses, of a Ryanair commercial flight that was circulating between two member states of the European Union” and the arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich “constitute a direct challenge to international norms,” said the White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

In addition to the measures announced in recent weeks, the White House said that it is preparing with the European Union “a list of targeted sanctions against key members of the Lukashenko regime” associated with the current “human rights violations and corruption, the falsification of elections of 2020 and the events of May 23”, according to the spokeswoman.

The Treasury Department is also working on developing sanctions against “elements of the Lukashenko regime and its support network.”. The United States has also advised its citizens to avoid traveling to Belarus and “use extreme caution” if they consider flying over Belarusian airspace..

Washington confirmed that economic sanctions against nine Belarusian state-owned companies, reimposed in April after the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, will take effect on June 3..

Following the disputed 2006 elections, Washington banned all transactions with these companies.. Treasury then lifted these sanctions in 2015, welcoming some progress..

But the US government warned at the end of March that this suspension could not be renewed at the next deadline.. In a clear demonstration of support for the Lukashenko regime, Putin received him this Friday in the seaside resort of Sochi, next to the Black Sea.

“I am very happy to see him,” Putin said, smiling, welcoming Lukashenko to his summer residence, offering him a swim in the sea after the meeting.. Putin praised the “concrete results” of the rapprochement. “We are building a union” strengthened between the two countries, he said.

Meanwhile, Lukashenko denounced Western attempts to “destabilize” his country, while the host recalled that the forced landing in Vienna in 2013 of the plane of the then Bolivian president Evo Morales, suspected of having left Moscow together with the American whistleblower Edward Snowden, had generated little protest.

Five hours

“It is very clear what these Western friends want from us,” Lukashenko told Putin.. “There is an attempt to destabilize the country so that the situation is like last August,” he added, referring to the wave of protests against the regime..

Talks in Sochi lasted more than five hours, but there were no announcements. On Sunday, Belarus diverted a flight between Athens and Vilnius to Minsk, a move the country's authorities said was necessitated by the bomb alert they received, and which led to the arrest of a dissident journalist on the plane..

For the EU, which asked airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace, the bomb alert was a hoax.. For Russia, Belarus has been transparent in this case. And it accuses the 27-member EU of “irresponsible behavior endangering passenger safety” by asking airlines to avoid Belarus, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said..

This EU decision led to the cancellation of several Air France flights, and Austrian Airlines announced the cancellation of its flight from Vienna to Moscow after Russian authorities rejected a rerouting to avoid Belarusian airspace..

Some in Europe fear that these are Russian retaliatory measures, which the Kremlin denied, citing “technical” reasons.

Lukashenko believes that Europe wants to “strangle” his country, many of whose top officials are already subject to sanctions due to the crackdown on opponents since last year's protests..

Belarusian opposition leader in exile Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, for her part, called on the EU on Friday to be “braver and stronger” and impose additional sanctions on Belarus..

Brussels, on his side, presented a project to support with 3,000 million euros for a “future democratic Belarus” whose advent, according to the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is a matter of time.

Staging

Despite the statements from Minsk, the suspicions that the bomb alert was staged have been reinforced by two elements.

Swiss-based company Proton Technologies, which has the address of the email account from which the bomb threat was sent, revealed that “the message was sent after the plane was diverted.”

The Dossier.center website publishes a photo presented as the one in said email, whose sending time is 09:57 GMT. But the transcript of the conversations between flight FR4978 and Belarusian air traffic controllers, released by Minsk, states that the pilot was informed of the threat at 0930 GMT, and a minute later was advised to land in the Belarusian capital..

The Belarusian investigative committee on Friday denied the hoax allegations, saying in a statement that several threatening messages were received on Sunday at 09:25 GMT and 09:56 GMT.. The Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is investigating the facts.