When the Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko plucked a dissident journalist out of the sky, he proved two things: that his 27-year grip on power is unhindered by international isolation, and that, absent meaningful action by the United States and Europe—whose citizens were among the passengers on the hijacked flight – nothing is going to change.
OP-ED
Yasmeen Serhan: The West is failing Belarus
Protesters hold images of Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko (L), Belarus opposition activist Roman Protasevich (C) and Protasevich's Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega (R) during a demonstration of Belarusians living in Poland and Poles supporting them in front of European Commission office in Warsaw on May 24, 2021 a day after a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius carrying the dissident journalist was diverted while in Belarusian airspace. - The Belarus Interior Ministry said on May 24 that opposition activist Roman Protasevich, who was aboard the diverted Ryanair flight, is being held in the capital Minsk and dismissed unconfirmed reports that he was hospitalised. The passenger flight from Athens to Vilnius was diverted while in Belarusian airspace on May 23 over a supposed bomb threat, prompting a global outcry to Minsk's forced landing of the aircraft.
