Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
Moscow: Russia has stuck to its hard posture in support of Belarus over the forced diversion and landing of the Ryanair flight FR4978 at Minsk airport in Belarus on May 23, 2021, and criticised European Union for “ratcheting up sanctions pressure on Belarus”.
It may be recalled that Belarusian authorities had sent fighter planes to get the Lithuania bound commercial plane landed in Minx to arrest journalist Raman Pratasevich — a move deplored by the European Union and the USA alike.
The forcible landing of the flight has also become a flashpoint in Russia, USA relations ahead of the June 16, 2021 meeting between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva.
Russia On June 10, 2021 criticised Brussels for not waiting for the results of an objective international investigation and said the EU’s haste raises “many justifiable questions”.
Also read: Biden-Putin summit on June 16 in Geneva; Belarus becomes another flashpoint in their relationship
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told mediapersons in Moscow that the decision to launch such an investigation was made by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council on May 27. “The official clarifications provided by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on May 26 have also been ignored,” she charged and asserted that “our negative attitude towards the practice of imposing unilateral restrictions by the EU is well known and remains unchanged”.
She said Russia was convinced of the need to conduct an in-depth study into the circumstances of the incident in cooperation with the Belarusian authorities, which, according to her, had confirmed a willingness to provide materials and to ensure a thorough and transparent investigation. “We look forward to an objective and professional review of this matter by ICAO,” she said.
Belarus is an important transit country for international air traffic, she pointed out. As is known, numerous air routes, including from EU countries, fly through its airspace. From now on, EU member state airlines, which are still reeling from the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis, will have to incur the additional expenses of longer flight routing to bypass Belarus.
“It would be perfectly fair to point to the evident environmental aspect of this issue, given that our Western partners prioritise the environmental agenda at their summits. It is strange that they completely lose sight of this most important aspect when implementing political decisions in practice. Let’s take a look at the realities against the backdrop of the European Green Deal which was announced by Brussels and is promoted by it,” said. Quoting “EU experts”, Zakharova said , flying around Belarus will cost EU airlines an additional 79 tonnes of aviation fuel daily, which increases carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere by 250 tonnes per day. “Here’s a good question: what does Greta Thunberg think about this? Was she asked for her opinion? Brussels has quoted her in the past,” she said. She added that a hasty and politically motivated rerouting of flights was not good for flight safety; it burdens air traffic controllers and inconveniences passengers.
“Our EU partners obviously make decisions based on the premise that “the end justifies the means,” since a great number of principles that are so dear to Brussels can so easily be discarded, if necessary,” she said adding that this also applied to the side effects of the sanctions imposed on Minsk. As EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said at the European Parliament on June 8 when discussing Belarus, “you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.”
Zakharova said, “Here’s what I would say to Mr Borrell: if you want an omelette, break your own eggs. We regard the logic of building international relations adopted by Brussels as straight out unacceptable. I have just given examples of our approach to this matter.”
– global bihari bureau
