The diversion of a Ryanair flight bound for Lithuania from Athens and the arrest of passenger Roman Protasevich – an influential Belarusian blogger critical of the country’s dictatorial regime – is the latest tyrannical action to lead to expressions of grave concern and tempered outrage from the West.
However, the fact that the passenger aircraft was forced to land by a Belarusian fighter jet on the pretence that the plane was carrying explosives is, arguably, a step up on the ladder of severity. Police brutality and the unlawful detention of opposition activists are quick to cause Western condemnation, but those still solely concern domestic matters – the interception of a European plane in transmit between two EU member states is unprecedented. Yet a question infrequently answered is how, in the apparently civilised and enlightened 21st century, leaders are able to get away with such brazen acts against their own populace and with flouting international law.
Western sanctions never affect those who dominate politics in Minsk and Moscow
The reason is, quite simply, due to fear and a sense that the West will never stand up to the world’s dictators.
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