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EU bans Belarusian airlines from European skies

bbc.com

181–190 of 422 posts

Re: EU bans Belarusian airlines from European skies

#181
post #103

Glenn Greenwald's latest piece on this: > What Belarus did, while illegal, is not unprecedented. The dangerous tactic was pioneered by the same U.S. and E.U. officials now righteously condemning it. https://greenwald.substack.com/p/as-anger-toward-belarus-mou...

Glenn Greenwald has just gone a bit funny these days. When he's not repeating propaganda straight out of RT (like this), he's minimising the crimes committed on 6 January. https://greenwald.substack.com/p/as-the-insurrection-narrati... https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-false-and-exaggerated-c... https://www.rt.com/russia/524731-belarus-ryanair-similar-inc...

I think he’s been a fascist all along. Same with Wikileaks, which was never neutral.

There is a need for a neutral leak platform, preferably one that takes humans entirely out of the loop and therefore removes all possibility of bias or strategic timing of releases. Maybe something involving cryptographic time locks?

While Assange is a problematic character ultimately the problem isn’t him so much as the presence of any secretive cabal of humans in that position.

Re: EU bans Belarusian airlines from European skies

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Target the elite instead of the people

The elite have already been forbidden from entering or doing business with the EU since November.

Then go after their offshores. Then start targeting their ties inside russian elite

Re: EU bans Belarusian airlines from European skies

#183
post #145

Worth noting in all of this that Belarus recently closed their land borders to citizens [1], under the guise of COVID, but in reality to stop people leaving. The only way out was flying from Minsk, which is now even less of an option if there are no flights to the EU. As others have said these sanctions will likely do more to harm the repressed citizens of the regime than Lukashenko [1] https://www.bnt.eu/cs/zpravy/p…

I'd like to see a worldwide agreement that no country will ever stop a citizen from leaving, as long as they have permission to enter another country. Even if the person is in prison or debt, they can always leave with just themselves to another country willing to take them. If all nations agreed to that, we could stop worrying about most other human rights abuses, and country governance becomes more of a free market…

The free market has a pretty terrible track record when it comes to human rights, though.

What would countries stand to gain from this, realistically? No country wants economic refugees.

Re: EU bans Belarusian airlines from European skies

#185
post #145

Worth noting in all of this that Belarus recently closed their land borders to citizens [1], under the guise of COVID, but in reality to stop people leaving. The only way out was flying from Minsk, which is now even less of an option if there are no flights to the EU. As others have said these sanctions will likely do more to harm the repressed citizens of the regime than Lukashenko [1] https://www.bnt.eu/cs/zpravy/p…

I'd like to see a worldwide agreement that no country will ever stop a citizen from leaving, as long as they have permission to enter another country. Even if the person is in prison or debt, they can always leave with just themselves to another country willing to take them. If all nations agreed to that, we could stop worrying about most other human rights abuses, and country governance becomes more of a free market…

I don't think that would solve the North Korea, Uighur, Hong Kong, or Taiwan crisis. Holding China accountable would solve 70% of human rights abuses.

Re: EU bans Belarusian airlines from European skies

#186
post #145

Worth noting in all of this that Belarus recently closed their land borders to citizens [1], under the guise of COVID, but in reality to stop people leaving. The only way out was flying from Minsk, which is now even less of an option if there are no flights to the EU. As others have said these sanctions will likely do more to harm the repressed citizens of the regime than Lukashenko [1] https://www.bnt.eu/cs/zpravy/p…

I'd like to see a worldwide agreement that no country will ever stop a citizen from leaving, as long as they have permission to enter another country. Even if the person is in prison or debt, they can always leave with just themselves to another country willing to take them. If all nations agreed to that, we could stop worrying about most other human rights abuses, and country governance becomes more of a free market…

I'd love to see something like this as well, but it's not going to happen as long as so many people and/or their governments don't like large influxes of people.

Re: EU bans Belarusian airlines from European skies

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The elite have already been forbidden from entering or doing business with the EU since November.

Then go after their offshores. Then start targeting their ties inside russian elite

> Then go after their offshores.

What, specifically, does this mean? The EU sanctions, idk, the Bahamas? Who? And how?

Re: EU bans Belarusian airlines from European skies

#188
post #97

Only half-related detail, the European track cycling championships are in Minsk next month: http://www.uec.ch/en/event/149/2021-uec-track-elite-european... The Dutch cycling union is now recommending its athletes not to compete there.

The IIHF World Hockey Championships should have taken right now in Minsk and Riga. They are currently taking place only in Riga. I'm sure no one regrets that decision right now.

Unfortunately Belarus were allowed to participate.

Re: EU bans Belarusian airlines from European skies

#190

Wonder what the geo-political consequences could be. What if Big Brother Putin now says all EU planes are banned from flying over Russia. Or what if Russian ATC are ordered to route planes flying from the east to Belarussian airspace. Of course there's probably a bit of freedom to choose routes by pilots, but if I were Putin I'd just say (or tell my ATC to say): "those routes are closed because of military training,…

> What if Big Brother Putin now says all EU planes are banned from flying over Russia For what gain?

He's been described as a very petty man. For the gain of maybe a move that inconveniences all the EU airlines enough that they'll lobby their governments to not implement this ban. An EU climbdown would be a delicious victory for him. But the way politics work, nobody ever climbs down anything.
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