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Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

lrt.lt

251–260 of 332 posts

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#251

The very sad thing is that there’s a lot of firms in Silicon Valley that do a lot of business with Belarus, totally ignoring the monstrosities of Lukashenko. Mapbox for example, sources a considerable amount of its workforce from Minsk, and they’re little better than slaves because they can’t quit or complain or they’ll be sent to the mines. We sit here and say that this kind of behavior is villainous, but we happily…

> or they’ll be sent to the mines.

Are you sure? Any sources? That sounds like bs to me. While IT job market is shrinking, even if ppl quit there is still a large pool of jobs in pretty much any direction.

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> participating in anti-government protests often results in people losing their jobs or being expelled from the universities This is quickly becoming the situation in the US if you criticize popular political movements.

Not exactly... In the US, organizations use this form of self-censorship to prevent a potential backlash from the public, whereas in Russia, the bans are direct orders from the government and the employers simply don't have any choice.

Often, there is less practical difference than I’d hope for. Look at the credit card networks’ sanctions of things like allofmp3.com, for example.

If you enjoy audio fiction, or short stories you might enjoy “The Revolution, brought to you by Nike”. It was written by an ad industry insider, and touches on a lot of issues regarding corporate self-censorship. (It’s a few years old, and predates Nike’s recent political activism):

https://escapepod.org/2018/09/06/escape-pod-644-the-revoluti...

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has also been set in motion: https://i.redd.it/elts5rgbg0171.jpg

European diplomats being "strongly concerned" have long become a running joke here in Russia: https://twitter.com/ISEUConcerned I sincerely hope that this statement finally gets backed up by some decisive action that can put real pressure on these dictators, but I don't get my hopes up.

Considering the recent revelations that Russia is literally blowing shit up in NATO countries (Bulgaria, Czechia) and EU and NATO's lack of response, this will most likely not result in any meaningful reaction either.

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

European diplomats being "strongly concerned" have long become a running joke here in Russia: https://twitter.com/ISEUConcerned I sincerely hope that this statement finally gets backed up by some decisive action that can put real pressure on these dictators, but I don't get my hopes up.

That's because EU is too expanded to be able to reach consensus. Individual countries are taking action however

Can individual countries yank airport landing slots? That would get attention.

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#255
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No use of airspace and no trade with NATO countries until the prisoners are released. It would take a week.

No use of airspace is already being discussed and likely going to happen. NATO is a military alliance, not a trade union. There's no way for them to organize what you're suggesting. > It would take a week. Fidel might like to have a word with you...

NATO members do talk to each other over a lot of different channels. It will take more than a week to organize, but it can be done.

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has also been set in motion: https://i.redd.it/elts5rgbg0171.jpg

European diplomats being "strongly concerned" have long become a running joke here in Russia: https://twitter.com/ISEUConcerned I sincerely hope that this statement finally gets backed up by some decisive action that can put real pressure on these dictators, but I don't get my hopes up.

This is where professional politicians need to learn a lesson from the Great Orange One. If Buttigieg had just answered "No, I don't think our passenger planes are safe over Bellarus anymore, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to protect the safety of US citizens flying in Europe", that would have been fine.

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#257
post #8

This will likely have no consequences to the regime in Belarus, while increasing costs to these Baltic airlines. A policy that might achieve something would be if the Baltic states, together with Poland and Ukraine, would close their airspace to Belavia planes, until the detained passenger is delivered to his destination in Vilnius. This will increase costs to Belarusian airlines, which would be a problem to the regi…

Ukraine just closed air connection with Belarus. Latvia sent out Belarusian diplomats.

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#258

The very sad thing is that there’s a lot of firms in Silicon Valley that do a lot of business with Belarus, totally ignoring the monstrosities of Lukashenko. Mapbox for example, sources a considerable amount of its workforce from Minsk, and they’re little better than slaves because they can’t quit or complain or they’ll be sent to the mines. We sit here and say that this kind of behavior is villainous, but we happily…

> they can’t quit or complain or they’ll be sent to the mines

Working in IT in Belarus is highly coveted, highly cushy (often 4-day work-weeks, company retreats, WFH, etc), and pays 5x ~ 10x average salary (i.e. you become moderately rich, very fast).

If you don't like working for one IT company, you can switch to another one.

Some are US-standard crappy Wordpress mills or whatever, but if you're working in IT you're not oppressed and you're not lucky: you're a person with skills that are in-demand and you're getting well compensated for using them.

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany has general election this September and since Merkel is gone for good there is a huge possibility that the CDU (the majority party for several years now and was in favor of NordStream) will lose to green party. Green party is completely against NordStream2. So things might actually change. But then again, it is easy to criticize when you are not in power.

My feeling as someone looking from outside, is that Merkel was forced to continue and buy gas from Russia because of the public outcry against nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster. The Green party might not be so eager to support nuclear, either. So then, without nuclear, without gas, there isn't a lot of choice for Germany in terms of energy.

Merkel has done plenty of things without major public support. She could have declared "wir schaffen es mit Atomkraft" and the country would likely have accepted that.
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