Russia Prohibits Austrian Airlines To Enter Moskou

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – Russia has prevented an Austrian Airlines flight from entering Moscow because it refused to cross over Belarusian airspace.

Austrian Airlines said it canceled a cargo-passenger flight from Vienna to Moscow on Thursday at the last moment.

Flight OS601 from Vienna was scheduled to arrive in Moscow on time, reports said. But the board at Domodedovo airport lists the flight as canceled, says a journalist of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

The airline had refused to transit through Belarusian airspace on the way to Moscow. Earlier, AirFrance also reported canceled flights to the Russian capital for similar reasons, it emerged Thursday.

Russian aviation authorities declined to comment. It came after the spokesman of President Vladimir Putin forwarded the question to aviation authorities about the cancellation of flights of European air carriers planning to fly to Moscow while bypassing Belarusian airspace.

“The presidential administration is not in charge of controlling air traffic. We recommend you to address this question to our aviation authorities,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, according to Interfax news agency.

The European Union urged its airlines to avoid Belarus and its airspace following Sunday’s forced landing in Minsk of a Ryanair plane and the arrest of a dissident journalist on board.

EU BANS BELARUSIAN AIRCRAFT

Brussels also banned Belarusian aircraft over EU airspace. Russia supports Belarus and has condemned Western sanctions against the country. And on Thursday, EU foreign ministers in Lisbon vowed to continue to increase pressure on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled his nation with an iron fist for a quarter-century.

The stand-off came as the parents of detained journalist Raman Pratasevich also appeared at a news conference in Poland for help from the international community to free their son.

“I want you to hear my cry, the cry of my soul. So that you understand how difficult it is for us now and how much we are experiencing this situation,” Natalia Pratasevich, his mother, said in Russian in remarks that were first translated into Polish and then English. “I am begging you, help me free my son.”

Pratasevich, 26, was on a flight from Greece to Lithuania, which was diverted over an alleged bomb threat by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The group denied that it made such a threat. Western countries accused Belarus of “hijacking” the Ryanair plane. A leaked email with the purported bomb threat came after the order was given to the plane to divert, according to the time stamp.

Soon after, the journalist and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, 23, were detained.

LONG JAIL TIME

Both admitted to “crimes” in video footage, but their families said they were under duress and possibly faced torture.

The journalist could get up to 15 years imprisonment for allegedly encouraging massive unauthorized protests against the country’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

He and the creator of the social media channel Nexta exposed Belarusian police exposed brutality during anti-government demonstrations last year.

Tens of thousands of people were detained and many beaten by security forces, according to former inmates and independent rights groups.

Nexta and its sister channel, Nexta Live, have close to 2 million subscribers. Pratasevich also has many followers through his online blog publication.

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