201–210 of 422 posts
Why is there no one talking about some sort of military response like literally building a base at the bielorussian border with fighter planes that would prevent such equally military actions like that.
I think economic interventions are cheaper and faster to implement. Military interventions have a tendency to escalate.
But how often do Lukashenko and his circle actually fly out of Belarus anyway? He already had no problem with closing his own borders before anyway, so it's not like this is going to seem like a strong move to him and it only really hurts the Belarusian people.
Dictators never rule alone, even though they suck all the attention. They have supporters and enablers. For example, a pilot of that MiG-29 fighter jet could blow a passenger plane if ordered so. Their police killed and tortured people that were on mass protests. Lukashenko doesn't have exclusive responsibility over this.
And someone who beat and raped peaceful protesters just a month ago may walk by you in Venice beach, holding ice cream in one hand and leading his daughter with the other. And maybe he even has an older son or daughter who goes to UCLA or Stanford on the money he's pillaged. That's really common.
Current sanctions target only the very top, but violent regimes have layers and layers of collaborators and their family members who come to the west to enjoy freedoms they deprive others of in their country. This should have much more focus. Let them be confined to the environment they create.
Why is there no one talking about some sort of military response like literally building a base at the bielorussian border with fighter planes that would prevent such equally military actions like that.
BelaRUS Russia has military zone (Kaliningrad) close to Poland and Lithuania, escalating military conflict with Belarus will make Russia to respond.
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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.
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> That's how the EU works. It's the case for every decision taken and law passed by the EU. Not exactly. It depends on the area of law one is in. For some areas of law the EU itself can create law in itself which immediately becomes law in the member states, overriding member state's laws (typically via EU Regulation) But this works only in areas where EU contracts give those powers to EU. Of course this then still d…
That's true - it's also worth explicitly noting that when the EU does make law directly, that is still done in a fully democratic way. The fact that that EU laws can override national laws does not mean that the EU Commission has unilaterally imposed law without consent. Law changes must first must be approved by the Council - comprising heads of state - and then by the EU parliament, consisting of directly elected r…
I'd argue a full democracy would be democracy by plebiscite.
Whether representative or direct democracy is better is an open question.
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…
It is worth noting that a recent survey showed a vast majority of Australians preferring closed borders as we have been relatively unscathed from COVID.
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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
Nobody ever touches offshore havens since rich people from everywhere have money there.
It took 9/11 for Switzerland to not laugh at law enforcement request from other countries. (Probably still laughs to anyone thats not US and maybe EU)
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And what stops elites from using Emirates? Or any other company, the name doesn't matter here.
What's your point? That Emirates should also stop flying there in order to inconvenience the elites? That would hurt the population way more than rich people, and EU has no such power.
It will not hurt the elites. In the most worst case (if every EU airline will decide to not serve Belarusians), they’ll fly to Russia first and use some russian plane. Or just will use a car - what a tragedy, lol. And it's the ONLY response from EU leaders. Pathetic cowards. Lukashenko now got confirmation that such actions will not be punished.
So, now every Belarusian who didn't agree with the regime and wanted to leave the country will be stuck there.
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Dear WastingMyTime89 (<-- not at all!): Excellent post. Thank you to clarify these important details! I wonder if but other (non-EU) European states will follow suit, such as United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, etc.
Switzerland is interesting. There's no way for a plane to get to it without crossing EU airspace.. I wonder how that plays out.