Putin-Lukashenko Summit In Sochi

Vladimir Putin met with Alexander Lukashenko at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in Sochi, on Friday. The presidents discussed joint projects in the economy, trade and energy. They also discussed the incident with the Ryanair plane and the sanctions against Belavia that were imposed thereafter.

This is the third meeting of Putin and Lukashenko since the beginning of the year.

The main topic of the talks is what interests the two countries the most: trade and economic relations. Russia remains a key partner of Belarus. This was shown by data obtained for the first quarter of this year.

Of course, presidens also touched upon the situation with the Athens-Vilnius flight of Ryanair.

Lukashenko was outraged by the fact that due to the bans imposed by the Europeans, Belavia suffers. He recalled that last year Western countries, which had closed off all their air service over the pandemic, requested Belavia, the Belarusian state-run airline, to help them with the repatriation of their citizens as only Minsk Airport was operational at the time.

A passenger jet belonging to Ryanair, an Irish low-cost airline, performing a flight from Athens to Vilnius on May 23 made an emergency landing at Minsk International Airport after a bomb threat on board the plane had been reported. A MiG-31 fighter jet was dispatched to escort the airliner to Minsk airport.

A subsequent search after the aircraft had touched down in the Belarusian capital failed to find any explosives. The Belarusian Investigative Committee opened a criminal probe into a false bomb scare. Minsk later specified that Roman Protasevich, wanted in Belarus as a co-founder of the Nexta Telegram channel deemed extremist, had been among the flight’s passengers. He was taken into custody by law enforcement agents, together with Sofiya Sapega, a young Russian woman traveling with him.

The European Union’s summit held after the Ryanair incident decided to ban Belarusian airlines from carrying out flights to European airports and through the EU’s airspace. It also recommended that European air carriers avoid flying over Belarusian territory.