ST. PETERSBURG, June 4. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin avoided answering a question about whether Russia would force a plane flying through its airspace, hypothetically from London to Thailand, to land if there was a wanted suspect on board.

"I will not tell you," Putin said in reply to a question from moderator Stanislav Natanzon at a plenary meeting of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday.

"We have a large audience and our forum in St. Petersburg is an international and economic one. You’ve literally rained us with these questions - me and the chancellor [Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz]," Putin told the moderator. "Who is he, Roman Protasevich? I’ve never heard anything about this man, and I do not want to know him. May he feel free to do anything he wants - fight against the Lukashenko regime or whatever."

On May 23, a Vilnius-bound Ryanair plane that took off from Athens made an emergency landing at Minsk International Airport after a reported bomb threat. A MiG-29 fighter jet alert crew was scrambled to escort the plane. After the landing, the plane was inspected and no bomb was found on board. Minsk said later that among the passengers on that flight was Roman Protasevich, one of the co-founders of the Nexta Telegram channel, which Minsk recognized as an extremist entity. Protasevich was detained by law enforcement agents once the plane had landed in the Belarusian capital. Russian national Sofia Sapega was also detained together with him. On May 23 evening, the plane left Minsk airport and continued on to Vilnius.