MINSK, May 27. /TASS/. Russia backs the position of Belarus who insists that an open international investigation should be conducted in the situation involving the Ryanair flight’s emergency landing and urges against politicizing this incident, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Thursday at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Roman Golovchenko.
He underlined that Moscow "resolutely opposes unilateral sanctions." "We urge not to politicize the situation involving the plane’s emergency landing in Minsk," Mishustin said.
The Russian prime minister added that Russia "supports the position of Belarusian partners who say that there needs to be a transparent international investigation through aviation authorities and that they are ready for it."
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. After the landing, the plane was inspected and no bomb was found inside. The Belarusian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into a false bomb alert. Roman Protasevich, one of the co-founders of the Nexta Telegram channel, which Minsk recognizes as extremist, was among the passengers on the flight. Protasevich was detained by law enforcement officials once the plane had landed in the Belarusian capital. On Sunday evening, the plane left Minsk airport and continued to Vilnius.
The EU summit on May 24 banned Belarusian airlines from flying to EU airports or travel over its territory and recommended European carriers to avoid the Belarusian airspace. The EU move came in response to the incident involving the emergency landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk on May 23.