Autocrats Feel More Empowered To Reach Across Borders | MSNBC

The Atlantic's Anne Applebaum writes about the implications of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordering a Ryanair flight carrying a key opposition blogger and headed for Lithuania to land in the Belarusian capital Minsk on Sunday and detaining him on arrival.

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Autocrats Feel More Empowered To Reach Across Borders | MSNBC

32 comments

  1. I think the core problem is that when sanctions fail to produce the results that are needed, the nations issuing the sanctions are unwilling to follow it up with military force! If you are going to play this game, you need to be able to show that there ARE consequences…if you are unable to follow through, then don’t be surprised when these dictators just ignore your bluster.

    1. @Dante Inferno displaying a complete lack of understanding of geopolitics. China is in no way better than the United States and in many ways worse. You got to be kidding.

    2. atm, the response is that the airlines are avoiding Belarusian air-space and relying on Polish or Lithuanian ATC. Stopping all flights to/from Belarus would be pretty effective.

    3. @alex silent I have no idea what point you’re trying to make. At various times China was more advanced than other countries and at other times it lagged behind technologically speaking. I’m not clear on why this is relevant.

    4. @Brandon Angstman I think Americans as a people are awesome and friendly. But your government is just abhorrent. No matter which party is currently ruling.

    1. @john smith ” @Fraudster Biden-Dickknuckle <----1 week old tRoll account "with over" 650 comments on "this channel" alone." haha, good spotting

    2. He probably declared the election to be rigged, because he was to popular to lose and demanded recounts until he found that extra 1,780 votes.

  2. Anyone who has criticized the Chinese regime, pay attention. Remember the Chinese now control ICAO.

  3. Hijack his bank account give it to the boys family to get their son back. I can’t even imagine what this young man is going through 🙏

    1. The PATRIOT Act in 2001 and the persecution of whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning under the Bush Jr. and Obama administrations preceded Trump and set far more dangerous precedents to human rights and liberties to Americans and others worldwide.

  4. What more do you expect from the filth of man. As they see the defenders of Democracy turn their backs on their own people.

  5. Great job for this today! It’s really been heartbreaking! I hope the EU hits up on this dictator in Belarus. Any more you never know in Belarus 🇧🇾. It’s a “Putin haven”… and an ex- Soviet satellite nation …that I read about recently. Hair raising otherwise …this high jacked plane incident. Wow. I hope this is resolved soon.

  6. Like Putin; while he was FIXING the election, he discovered just how few people support him…

  7. Time for the international community to take radical actions against Belarus!!!
    This is an absolute outrage!

  8. So the Belarus government made a false claim to ground the plane!
    Freezes a ALL Belarus bank accounts!!

  9. Applebaum does not know what she is talking about. Civil aviation is part, an extension if you will, of the military of every country. Airports and the facilities are available to the military as required…in the event of a crisis, natural or political. To suggest that air traffic control is purely civil is a mistake.

  10. USA will get here soon if the GOP wins elections. Too many kooks in GOP and we don’t need more to get into gov.

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