First, a rally was organized at the Latvian Embassy "Against Latvia's interference in the internal affairs of Belarus", but already in the evening, Latvian diplomats were ordered to go home. After the incident with the intercepted Ryanair plane that allegedly had a bomb on it, Belarus is now offended at almost all European and NATO countries, but some in particular, including Latvia.
With the steps taken by the international community - airspace restrictions, sanctions and harsh criticism from leaders - Belarus is returning even faster to Russia's soft embrace. The Kremlin benefits from the political and physical isolation of Minsk, and it has immediately sided with President Lukashenko.
Belarus's official news channels are currently oversaturated with foreign news. They even overshadow news of the effects of bad weather on crops. And proportionally many of these news are related to Latvia, because Latvia's political leaders, both literally and figuratively, walk around with symbols hostile to the ruling regime in Belarus. That is why the ministers are expressing their opinions, the deputies are expressing their opinions, so is everyone who is ordered to keep alive the message that Latvia wants to harm Belarus. Here is one of yesterday's many headlines: "The US and British are involving the Latvian government in hostile actions." The BELTA agency says that "political steps aimed at supporting Belarusian opposition groups and putting pressure on our country are, in fact, hostile actions from Latvia." The great powers are encouraging Latvia to turn against Belarus. In this and other opinion pieces, using references to World War II, Latvia is referred to as a supporter of Nazism. Minsk has been extremely annoyed by the replacement of the flag of the Republic of Belarus with the white-red-white flag of the opposition in Riga. Even more than by the closure of airspace by Lithuania, the United Kingdom and the sanctions promised by the European Union. But they are all interconnected things.
Each of the parties in the story of the plane intercepted in Belarusian airspace has its own interests, but on one issue they probably coincide, namely the wish to remove Alexander Lukashenko from the political scene. The West would have been active in the name of democracy, while Russia could possibly appoint an even more obedient puppet.
We have to recall the fable of the story, and this is really a fable, because each party has its own version of what really happened. The Belarusian opposition Raman Pratasevich was flying from Athens to Vilnius. This is an important fact because in the end he was arrested. When the plane was approaching Lithuanian airspace, it was ordered to go to Minsk airport, as it was reported that the plane had a bomb on it. Accordingly, the civilian plane, accompanied by a military fighter jet, landed in Minsk. No bombs were found, the plane was released, but Pratasevich was taken. The official position of Western countries, including Latvia, is that the interception of the plane was organized by the Belarusian authorities to arrest Pratasevich. Minsk explained that a bomb threat had been received and that President Lukashenko had acted for security reasons.
Russia, as expected, has sided with Lukashenko. This is evidenced by the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
"According to Belarus' official reports, the decision to land the plane was taken by the pilot in command in accordance with the aviation safety rules because of a terrorist act threat. The actions of the Belarusian aviation authorities were in accordance with the international rules. The fighter aircraft of the Belarusian Air Force was scrambled to control and assist in landing if necessary, especially given the presence of the Belarusian nuclear power plant nearby."
In Russia's view, Pratasevich's detention is an internal matter for Belarus and it is more surprised by the coordinated response by the West and the EU, NATO and the OSCE. At the end of the message, Russia, as always, asks everyone to remain friends, but no friendship will be possible in the foreseeable future.
European Union prime ministers agreed on Monday night to impose economic and personal sanctions on Belarus, including banning Belarusian airlines from flying in EU airspace and denying them access to airports. A number of countries have already closed their airspace to the national airline Belavia and refunds to passengers have begun.
The Latvian national airline Airbaltic was still selling tickets to Minsk yesterday because the Civil Aviation Administration had not yet made a decision on the use of Latvian airspace and recommendations not to fly to Belarus, and it was waiting for government decisions, but the government decided nothing because Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš was still in Brussels at the European Council meeting, which decided on the most appropriate way to show the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, his place. And this place will clearly be by the side of Russian President Putin. As a result of this scandal, Belarus will become even more close to Russia - politically, economically and militarily. This is the conclusion of the independent military analytics portal "Vara bungas." Russia will benefit from restricting air transit by taking over the traffic. Restricting land transit will benefit Russian sea transit. The event will also serve as a pretext to protect Belarus militarily, which will mean new military bases for Russian forces. In any case, from the point of view of the security of our region, what has happened is nothing good, concludes "Vara bungas":
"Once again (after the Kerch Strait incident) internationally accepted norms of conduct have been shifted. Authoritarian regimes are allowed to do everything, there are no borders in the world, nor is there police."
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