The US is to join the European Union in imposing sanctions on Belarus over its campaign to crush critics of president Alexander Lukashenko and its diversion of a Ryanair aircraft so that an anti-government activist could be arrested. Belarus scrambled a fighter jet on May 23rd to escort a Ryanair plane en route from Greece to Lithuania to Minsk airport, where police arrested journalist and campaigner Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega. “Belarus’s forced diversion of a commercial Ryanair flight under false pretences...and the subsequent removal and arrest of Roman Protasevich... are a direct affront to international norms,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki. “On June 3rd, 2021, the United States will reimpose full blocking sanctions against nine Belarusian state-owned enterprises,” she added. Mr Lukashenko held talks in Russia on Friday and Saturday with its president, Vladimir Putin, who has given him financial and security support, and echoed his claim that western powers are fomenting violent unrest in Belarus to topple its leader of 27 years.

Source: The Irish Times May 30, 2021 16:35 UTC