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Crisis in Belarus

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Moscow vows to defend rights of Russian woman held in Minsk

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova cautioned against jumping to conclusions over the reasons for the Ryanair flight's landing in Minsk

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Russian Foreign Ministry Press Office/TASS

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

© Russian Foreign Ministry Press Office/TASS

MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. Moscow is making every effort to ensure that the rights of Russian citizen Sofia Sapega who was taken into custody in Minsk along with opposition figure Roman Protasevich are observed, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

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"We are doing everything to ensure that the Russian national's rights are respected," Zakharova emphasized in an interview with the Echo Moskvy radio station when answering a question if Moscow was taking any steps to release Sapega.

The diplomat also cautioned against jumping to conclusions over the reasons for the Ryanair flight's landing in Minsk. "We don't have any right to act emotionally. We are acting in compliance with legal norms," Zakharova specified.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman mentioned also that "a Russian consul was granted access to Russian national Sofia Sapega detained in Belarus after Minsk had completed the necessary legal proceedings."

"The matter is that some legal proceedings were taking place and she [Sapega] was involved in them," Zakharova said. "The consul went to meet with her as soon as we received official notification from Belarus after waiting the entire day for the proceedings to be completed. They were over by the end of the day and the meeting was held in the evening," the diplomat added.

Russian national Sofia Sapega and founder of the extremist Telegram channel Nexta, Roman Protasevich, who was wanted in Belarus, were detained on May 23 at Minsk International Airport after a Ryanair airliner was forced to make an emergency landing. The Vilnius-bound Ryanair flight that took off from Athens was compelled to touch down in Minsk after a reported bomb threat. A Mikoyan MiG-29 jet was scrambled to escort the plane. The bomb threat came up empty after the aircraft had been inspected and no explosives were found.

Later, Sapega admitted that she served as the Black Book of Belarus Telegram channel's editor, which doxes Belarusian police officers. In April 2021, this Telegram channel was recognized as an extremist entity.

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