Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urges not to rush to assess the situation regarding the emergency landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk when Roman Protasevich, one of the founders of Nexta Telegram (known as an extremist channel in Belarus), was arrested.

Lavrov stated that there have been similar situations in the past. “The most famous episode was in 2013 when, according to the US, Austria forced the plane transporting the President of Bolivia to make a landing without apologizing later, and there is another case that isn’t talked about often, that is, the case in 2016 when a Belarusian airline plane had to make a landing in Kiev since Ukraine’s security service was interested in a citizen of Armenia who was aboard the plane. The citizen was lowered from the plane, and the pilot continued the journey, and there was no apology,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov also emphasized that it is important to assess the situation with sobriety, especially since the Belarusian government is ready to provide all the necessary information.