The official spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said today, Tuesday, that the reaction of Western countries to the emergency landing of the “Ryanair” plane in Minsk is real hysteria, which is not supported by anything from the point of view of international law.
Moscow – Sputnik. “This is real hysteria. Strange hysteria, unsupported by anything from the standpoint of international law or private experience. It has never happened that our Western partners have done something like this, and they accompanied him with similar statements or hysterical screams,” Zakharova said in an interview on Russian TV channel “Dojd”. “.
A passenger plane belonging to the Irish “Ryanair” company, which was heading from the Greek capital Athens to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, had landed earlier on Sunday at Minsk airport after news of a bomb on board, but the checks that took place after the plane landed confirmed This is incorrect.
Subsequently, the Belarusian Ministry of the Interior announced that Roman Portasevich, the founder of the “Nexa” channel on the Telegram application, which Belarus classifies as an extremist, had been arrested on board a Ryanair plane while it was stopping at Minsk airport.
On Sunday, the Lithuanian Public Prosecution Office announced, “Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the diversion of a Ryanair airliner that was bound to Vilnius, and forcing it to land in Minsk.”
In a similar incident in 2013, the plane of former Bolivian President Evo Morales was diverted during a flight from Moscow to Bolivia to land in Vienna on suspicion that a former employee of the US National Security Agency, Edward Snowden, was on board. Subsequently, European airspace for the aircraft was opened.