The Russian Foreign Ministry commented on the incident with the Ryanair aircraft

It is noted that "according to the official reports of the Belarusian side, the landing took place in accordance with the aviation security rules by the decision of the crew commander because of the threat of a terrorist attack."

According to Zakharova, “the actions of the Belarusian aviation authorities were in accordance with international standards, the fighter of the Belarusian Air Force was taken into the air to exercise control and assist in landing if necessary, especially given the presence of the Belarusian nuclear power plant nearby.”

“We took note of the information about the arrest by the Belarusian special services of one of the founders of the telegram channel NEXTA, Roman Protasevich, who was on board and was on the list of persons involved in extremist activities.

We consider this issue to be an internal affair of Belarus, ”a representative of the ministry said.

She said that “there is information that, besides Roman Protasevich, a Russian citizen did not return on board the plane, on this issue the Russian Embassy in Minsk is in contact with her relatives and the Belarusian authorities and is ready to provide consular assistance”.

Zakharova noted that "the coordinated reaction to these events by representatives of a number of Western countries and international organizations, including the EU, NATO and the OSCE, is surprising."

According to her, “they demand the release of the detained Roman Protasevich and introduce the most stringent additional sanctions against Belarus and the Belavia airline.

“I would like to remind you that they reacted differently to similar events that took place earlier in other countries.

And there were many such examples, ”she said.

The representative of the department recalled that “in 2013, at the request of the US special services, then hunting for ex-CIA agent Edward Snowden, was forcibly landed in Vienna and the plane of the President of Bolivia, which was flying from Moscow, was inspected; in 2004, the United States was forced to land at Palm airport. The scourge that followed the route Moscow - Barbados - Aspen was the personal board of the former First Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia, and later Senator A.P. Vavilov, who was interrogated for many hours. "

“In 2012, Turkey landed a Moscow-Damascus plane with the help of fighters, having searched the ship and seized its cargo. Belarusian airliners also became objects of forced landings. In 2016, the Belavia plane, which took off from the Kiev airport, 50 km before entering the Belarusian airspace, was forced at the request of the Ukrainian dispatcher, who threatened to lift in the event of a refusal of combat fighters, to return to the departure airport to remove the Anti-Maidan activist A. Martirosyan ... According to a similar scenario, the Ukrainian special services planned to seize the "Wagnerites" in 2019 by means of an emergency landing in Kiev of a plane from Minsk to Istanbul. Fortunately, this SBU operation failed, ”the message says.

As noted by Zakharova, "all these actions were committed deliberately, in violation of international law, there was practically no Western reaction to them, none of the perpetrators was punished."

“We draw your attention to the statement of the official representative of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, who expressed Minsk's readiness for maximum transparency in this matter, including the provision of materials and admission of international experts.

We call on our Western partners to refrain from applying “double standards” and take measures to soberly, without emotion, assess the situation on the basis of all available materials in cooperation with the Belarusian aviation authorities, demonstrating openness and readiness for interaction, ”she added.

On May 23, a Ryanair plane en route Athens - Vilnius made an emergency landing in Minsk after reports of mining operations.

On board, Roman Protasevich, the creator of the NEXTA Telegram channel, which covered the protests against the presidential elections in Belarus in August 2020, was detained. 

The European Union has summoned the Permanent Representative of Belarus because of the incident with Ryanair.