Belarus intercepts Ryanair jet and forces it to land

Hardly. The sanctions were pretty minor and targeted things of no interest. But like you said what can you realistically do.

State sanctions were supplemented with sanctions against individuals. Clearly they are of limited effectiveness and usually just harm the poorest. It always surprises me that there is still room for greater sanctions, but they always seem to get round them or really don’t care that much. My own company has a Russian subsidiary, perhaps you could sanction weatern companies that do any kind of business with Russia? Same as Iran

Full agreed Julian. My view is sanctions are the lazy mode way of a country being perceived to do something without actually doing much. The problem is they tend to have the reverse of the desired impact, and marginalises the country. It’s better to bring the country into the international community, and over time that will encourage the people of the country to want to be more friendly with the west so they can buy their fancy stuff and that will ultimaltely force the goverment to be more friendly.

In short give rogue states a reason to align with western values rather than a reason to align against them.

If I recall, the US actually punishe dthe Russians harder than we did over the Salisbury affair. Fair play to them, shame on HMG.

What diplomatic fall out? Politicians blow a lot of hot air while Germany is pushing through with a direct gas line to Russia.

Uk expelled entire Russian diplomatic mission 2 years ago, even Trump expelled a number. EU nations were weaker and as you say, suggest, Germany is in a very weak position.

I wonder if we will be hearing from Michael O’Leary laying into those responsible or uncharacteristically he keeps his gob shut. I suspect his customers are an easier target than those inclined to eliminate mouthy critics.
Belarus should be completely cut off from the outside world over this act of piracy but token efforts are the more likely and sanctions are I suspect far less effective now that Russian and no doubt through it its poodles have all manner of agreements with China to supply many of their needs or enable a back door for other goods.

Yes, Ryanair’s reaction appears troubling. According to the released flight path, the jet was significantly closer to it’s destination in Vilnius, Latvia than Minsk, for a bomb risk, and virtually over the internal EU border. Also seems from passenger reports that the real reason for the hijacking would have been assumed by the crew.
OK, maybe the crew themselves balls it out for as long as possible, which would have explained the last minute divert if a threat to down them was made by the fighter, say, but so far there’s been no reveal on that issue, which seems strange.
But then add in what comes across as Ryanair’s official, pathetic and unnecessary comment involvng the phrase ‘nothing untoward’. As you say, beggars belief and useally so un-O’Leary.

How do you edit. I’ve got Latvia

Hover your cursor over the bottom right hand corner of your post…a cog should appear with the word edit below it. Click on the edit…and Bob’s your uncle!

Thanks for the heads up, H. Still cannot fathom, though. Never mind.

If you click on the cog it says Edit…you need to move the cursor down over the “edit” and click on that as well. You will then get your message in a text box!

Finally got a cog to appear on a test post not submitted. No luck here, but thanks anyway.

Germany is a bloody liability, absolutely terrified of offending Russia …. Interesting to see their response here, I’m betting piss poor!

They are really backing themselves into a bit of a corner with Russia. Have pretty much complete energy dependence on nation with an authoritarian regime that due to history does not really like you much is…I would say on the whole a bad idea.

The Greens said they will offend Russia by Not buying any more gas.

Really, interesting you say that could you give me your qualifications and I would be very interested to see your literature review on the subject.

Apologies man but at the EXTREME risk of taking the thread down another minefield I’ll just say this without using the poop word anywhere.

Climate Change alarmists always make the claim that about 2700 scientists agree with them and that these represent about 97% of all scientists. And so, they claim, it is an indisputable fact.

But the fact is, there is no consensus in the scientific community over Climate Change. For example a recent U.S. Senate minority report says more than 650 scientists express dissent over man-made global warming claims. In addition, over 30,000 scientists have signed on to a petition that says there is no convincing evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane or other greenhouse gasses causes or will … cause catastrophic heating of the earths atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.

Now I ain’t no scientist, a poet maybe or perhaps more like a fisherman I throw the rod out say a few things and the London boys go crazy 😂 but anyways I digress ..neither is Al Gore a scientist anymore than Billy boy gates is a Dr with qualifications in immunology However one thing I do know is that TRUE science is rarely settled. Consensus means nothing. Science isn’t a democracy in which the one idea with the most votes wins. Science is based on FACT – provable fact. It doesn’t matter how many agree or disagree. Truth in science is all that matters. But if you cut off anyone’s ability to even question someone’s findings as is the current situation with EXTREME censorship then you have fallen prey to a specific political agenda which I’m afraid the majority have.

anyways back to planes and journalists and Russia and WW3👍🏻

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧

Astonishingly ignorant comment!

The Europeans had to be pressured through embarrassment and arms behind back to do anything, even Trump did nothing till his officials told him it would damage relations with their closest ally and threaten big cracks in the trans-Atlantic alliance if they turned a blind eye. The Europeans only then felt obliged to do something too to maintain a whiff of unity. All pretty laughable to the Russians and unsurprisingly down the line having tested the ground with the Ukraine they have now encouraged their only real hard communist ally to cause yet more provocative aggro to further weaken Western unity. Sadly they will again likely see its working and move on to the next one.

Certainly seems the most logical and reasonable response. That’d likely fire up O’Lairy’s* mouth again. *no spelling mistake this time.
Regards

Thanks CR. The aircraft is flying under an AOC which is registered to “Ryanair Sun”. Offshoot of Ryanair holdings and as you pointed out holds a Polish registration. Still flying under EASA and european regulations. I learnt something today!

You’re welcome.

They were talking about sanctions this morning. Apparently, Belarus raises money by issuing Bonds on the London money markets. We should ban that for starters. That might have a real impact on the Belarus economy which is already struggling…

Cheers CR

Yes, it relates to the event itself and would not be considered to impactful of the general population ( who are in reality mostly to poor to fly).