Brazen Ryanair Kidnapping Signals to Dissidents EU Isn’t Safe

  • Belarusian activists living in Europe wonder who will be next
  • The EU has banned Belarus flyovers after reporter seized
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya during a news conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, on May 24.Photographer: Mindaugas Kulbis/AP Photo
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Exiled critics of Alexander Lukashenko have realized their adopted European homes aren’t necessarily safe after the Belarus strongman forced a commercial jet to land in order to arrest a dissident journalist this week.

Nine months after fleeing Belarus, opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya saw how Lukashenko brazenly defied international law to arrest Raman Pratasevich, a reporter despised by the regime who like her had sought refuge in Lithuania.