The EU Has to Come Down Hard on Belarus — and Fast
Minsk’s forced landing of a passenger jet travelling between two EU capitals incensed Brussels. Clear, forceful and swift sanctions need to match the rage.
Demanding freedom.
Photographer: Wojtek Radwanski/AFP
European Union leaders are often mocked for their meaningless expressions of concern when confronted with the world’s cruelest regimes. This time has been different. After Belarusian authorities forced down a commercial aircraft flying between two European cities on Sunday, using an apparent bomb threat to extract a dissident journalist, there was outrage. Within little more than a day, the EU had advised its own airlines to circumvent the country, prepared to bar Belarus’s flag carrier and threatened tougher punishments.
This was all laudable and necessary. The recklessness of a state-backed hijack demanded an extraordinary response. Now the 27 member states — the same ones that have been dithering over other sanctions since earlier this year — need to make good on their threats, and do so fast.