In Russia – where the state media described the uprising against Lukashenko last year as a Western conspiracy – the arrest of Putin’s supporters met with approval. Margarita Simonyan, editor of the Kremlin-friendly RT TV station, wrote on Twitter that Mr. Lukashenko “played it beautifully”. And Vyacheslav Lysakov, a member of parliament allied with Putin, described the arrest of Protasevich as a “brilliant special operation”.
Belarusian authorities said they ordered the plane to land after receiving information about a bomb threat, even though Vilnius, the plane’s destination, was much closer than Minsk when the jetliner turned. The country’s defense ministry said in another statement that the country’s air defense forces have been placed on alert.
It is known that Mr. Lukashenko and his government use ruse to persecute their political opponents.
Mr Protasevich’s arrest comes months after the largest wave of street protests in Belarusian history failed to depose Mr Lukashenko, who has been the country’s authoritarian leader for more than 26 years.
More than 32,000 protesters were arrested and at least four died during the protests. Hundreds of people were brutally beaten by the police. NEXTA became the leading online outlet coordinating the demonstrations.
With Putin’s support and exceptional violence, Mr Lukashenko managed to crack down on demonstrators successfully, with the country’s security apparatus remaining loyal to him.
Ms. Tikhanovskaya, the main opponent of Mr. Lukashenko during the last presidential election in August, widely viewed as rigged, described the episode with the Ryanair flight as “an operation by the Special Services to hijack an airplane to arrest activist and blogger Roman Protasevich. “
“Not a single person flying over Belarus can be sure of their safety,” she said.
Aviation industry observers predicted a strong response from commercial airlines. “What is unique about this incident is that it was state sponsored,” said Kevin Murphy, an analyst at Morgan Stanley.
