Bad premonition: Belarus soon to be part of Russia? Lukashenko meets Putin today

The Protasevich case is causing great anger between the EU and Belarus.

G7 foreign ministers demand the immediate release of the regime critic.

The news ticker.

• EU foreign ministers meeting in Lisbon: G7 countries demand immediate release of Protasevich.

• Lukashenko threatened to loosen border controls with the EU - Lithuania wants to protect borders better.

• Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko have scheduled a personal meeting for Friday (

  see update from May 27, 8:35 p.m.

  )

• This 

  news ticker on the Ryanair incident and Protasewitsch

   is updated regularly.

Update from May 28th, 8 a.m.:

Airlines based in the EU should avoid the airspace over Belarus - Russia does not seem to approve alternative routes to Moscow for some airlines. Both the Austrian company Austrian Airlines and the French Air France had to cancel flights to the Russian capital, according to media reports on Thursday. The Austrian news agency APA reported that a scheduled flight from Vienna to Moscow planned for Thursday had to be canceled because the Russian authorities had not given permission to fly around Belarus. For this reason, Air France flights from Paris to Moscow had previously been canceled.

In response to the forced landing of a passenger plane and the arrest of government critic Roman Protassevich in Minsk on Sunday, the European Union imposed a new package of sanctions against Belarus on Tuesday. In addition, airlines based in the EU were asked to avoid the airspace over Belarus.

According to AFP, the French pilots union SNPL confirmed that changes in the flight schedules for flights between France and Russia would have to be requested from the Russian authorities.

While responses to these types of inquiries would normally be accepted immediately, there has been radio silence for the past two days.

Due to the lack of permission to fly over Russian airspace, flights should have been canceled.

The Austrian Foreign Ministry informed the APA: “We absolutely cannot understand the Russian reaction.” In a statement it said that Russia was urged to “not artificially obstruct free air traffic between Russia and Europe”.

Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz with a demand on Russia's Putin: the release of the journalist Protasewitsch

Update from May 28, 6:30 a.m .:

Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) urged the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to campaign for the release of the imprisoned journalist Roman Protasewitsch. "Moscow must not ignore this egregious act of air piracy," said the SPD candidate for Chancellor of the Funke media group. "President Putin must use all his influence over the Belarusian dictator to secure the immediate release of Roman Protassewitsch and his partner Sofija Sapega." The regime in Minsk must be isolated internationally, said Scholz. A meeting between the Kremlin boss and the Belarusian ruler is planned for Friday in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi. Putin is considered to be the last strong ally of the ruler in Minsk, who violently suppressed protests against his government last year.

Meanwhile, after the forced landing of the passenger plane, Protasevich was finally able to see his lawyer.

"Everything is good, he's in good spirits, positive and happy," Inessa Olenskaya told the independent Belapan news agency on Thursday evening.

For reasons of secrecy, she could no longer say.

Protassevich's parents, living in exile in Poland, had previously stated that they had discovered traces of abuse on their son's face in a video distributed by Belarusian state propaganda.

They also considered a presumed confession by Protassevich about the organization of mass unrest to be forced.

Belarus conflict: Lukashenko meets Putin - Lithuania has bad premonitions and compares Crimea

Update from May 27, 8:35 p.m.:

In the midst of Europe's outrage about the actions of Belarusian Prime Minister Alexander Lukashenko, there is now a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin *.

The Kremlin boss receives Lukashenko in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi.

Putin is considered to be the last strong ally of the ruler in Minsk, who brutally suppressed anti-government protests last year.

Meanwhile, Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has expressed concern about Russia's annexation of the former Soviet Republic of Belarus.

As Landsbergis said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers, there is a corresponding cooperation between the ruler Alexander Lukashenko and Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

Lukashenko is working on changing the constitution.

This would make it possible to make one country out of Russia and Belarus.

Russia would proceed in a similar way to the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014. Landsbergis warned: "This is Crimea, only on a larger scale."

Belarus conflict: Lukashenko in the crosshairs of the EU - Maas excludes “nothing at all”

Initial report:

Lisbon / Minsk - The EU had already decided a few days ago sanctions against Belarus because of the forced landing of a Ryanair plane.

Ruler Alexander Lukashenko responded to the criticism and cited an alleged threatening email, which was the reason that the plane was pushed to land.

At the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Lisbon, the G7 countries decided to take further steps against Belarus.

As a reminder, on Sunday (May 23rd) a Ryanair plane was forced to land in Minsk.

The regime critic Roman Protasewitsch * was on board, and the police arrested him immediately after landing in Belarus.

In a video that Protasevich was apparently forced to make, he made a confession *.

The arrested blogger's parents are desperate and ask the international community to rescue their son.

EU foreign ministers meeting: G7 countries demand immediate release of political prisoners

According to information from the AFP news agency, the foreign ministers of the G7 countries are calling for the "immediate and unconditional release" of the Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich. In a joint statement, they condemned the arrest of the 26-year-old “strongly” and demanded that the ruler Lukashenko also release all other political prisoners.

The G7 foreign ministers also denounced the "serious attack on freedom of the press" and condemned the diversion of the plane.

This has endangered the "safety of passengers and crew" and is a serious violation of the rules of civil aviation.

According to Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Lukashenko's behavior has “terrorist features”.

The SPD * politician said on Thursday after consultations with EU colleagues that one is now so far as to exclude “nothing at all”.

Lukashenko threatened to loosen controls at the border with the EU - Lithuania wants to increase border protection

The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko made his first statement on Wednesday (May 26) about the forced landing of a passenger plane in Minsk and defended the action.

At the same time, he accused the West of demonizing and threatened to reduce control of migrant movements and drug smuggling.

After Lukashenko's speech, Lithuania wants to better secure its border with the neighboring country.

"Our goal is to cover the entire border with Belarus with surveillance cameras," said Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite

, according to the

BNS

agency

, in Vilnius on Thursday.

You have already instructed the responsible authorities of the Baltic EU and NATO country to work out a plan.

Short-term measures should also be taken.

(dpa) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA

List of rubric lists: © Sergey Bobylev