“THE FLIGHT GAME HAS STARTED”: RUSSIA STOPS ALLOWING FLIGHTS THAT BOYCOTT BELARUS

Russia has stopped issuing arrival permits to flights that do not fly through Belarusian airspace

Russia has stopped issuing arrival permits to flights that fly through Belarusian airspace. The first airline to which the measure was applied was Austrian Airlines.

The matter is about the refusal of several Western airlines to fly over the territory of Belarus because of the incident with the unscheduled landing of the plane in Minsk. On that flight were the former head of the extremist Telegram channel NEXTA and his girlfriend, who curated the Telegram channel, where they posted personal data of Belarusian security forces. Both are now detained and are being held in a Belarusian pre-trial detention centre.

In response to the boycott by Western airlines, Russia has stopped issuing arrival permits for flights flying over Belarus. And the first to which this measure was applied was a flight by Austrian Airlines from Vienna to Moscow. A few days earlier the air carrier had loudly announced its refusal to fly through Belarus. Flight from Vienna to Moscow took an alternative route, without crossing the Belarusian airspace.

According to Baltic Review editorial office the reason for “playing with flights” is related to the fact that Austrian air carriers are going to fly through Ukraine instead of Belarus. And many high-ranking civil servants and top managers of Russian state-owned companies, such as Gazprom, fly to Austria.