“The lifting of sanctions from Belavia is such a crafty story, because in fact this is a very limited exception to the ongoing sanctions regime. Both in terms of flight range and spare parts, all this remains dependent on the American side,” Lavrov said. “So there is more of this, you know, I would say, external effect.”
According to the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, in Washington, “the continued dependence of Belavia on the United States” shows an alleged desire to “manage the policy of this airline” and “influence the policy of the Republic of Belarus.”
“By the way, we are also interested in cooperation with the United States in the aviation sector; we proposed long ago, during the first contacts in January-February of this year, to resume direct flights. So far, from our conversations with our American colleagues, we feel that this is not their priority,” Lavrov complained.
Context
A number of countries have introduced restrictions on air traffic with Belarus after a Belarusian Air Force fighter was scrambled on May 23, 2021, on behalf of Alexander Lukashenko, who considers himself the President of Belarus, “to escort” a Ryanair plane that was flying from Athens to Vilnius. The Belarusian authorities claimed that the reason for the landing in Minsk was a report that the ship had been mined (no explosives were subsequently found on board).
The Belarusian special services then removed from the flight and detained the opposition journalist, co-founder of the NEXTA Telegram channel Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega.
On September 11, the representative of American President Donald Trump, John Cole, said at a meeting with Lukashenko that the United States lifted the sanctions imposed on Belavia in 2021. According to Cole, Trump himself ordered this.
The Russian aviation fleet, under sanctions, is in decline, Reuters wrote on September 22. As an illustration, the agency cited the crash of an An-24 in the Amur region at the end of July. This plane was produced almost 50 years ago. According to media reports, the Russian Federation asked the UN for concessions for aviation after the lifting of US restrictions against Belavia.
