MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. Western countries should stop demonizing Belarus following the Ryanair flight incident, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on Thursday.
"I would like to reiterate what Moscow has said many times. We insist that the West stop demonizing those it doesn’t like. The Belarusian authorities said right after the incident that they were ready to carry out an open and transparent investigation, welcome experts and provide all the relevant information," he said in response to a TASS question.
According to the Russian diplomat, Minsk has unilaterally made some of that information public. "However, our Western colleagues, particularly the Baltic nations, are behaving inappropriately both in diplomatic and human terms. They have vociferously announced sanctions and are demanding in the same vociferous manner that an independent international investigation be carried out, which is what the Belarusian authorities have proposed. But even while they are demanding an investigation, they have already announced the punishment," Lavrov pointed out.
On May 23, a Vilnius-bound Ryanair flight that took off from Athens was forced to make an emergency landing at Minsk International Airport 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 landed. Minsk specified later that Roman Protasevich, wanted in Belarus as a co-founder of the Nexta Telegram channel, which the Belarusian authorities recognized as extremist, had been among the flight’s passengers. He was detained by law enforcement agents. The flight departed later that same day, continuing on to its final destination of Vilnius.
On Monday, the European Union’s summit decided to introduce new sanctions on Belarus, demanded that Protasevich be released and called on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to investigate the forced landing of the plane.