Blast From The Past

World leaders have blasted the forced landing of Ryanair flight FR4978 that saw a Belarusian journalist taken into police custody after the civilian plane made an emergency landing in Minsk, Belarus, over a false bomb threat. European leaders have issued retaliatory actions, such as prohibiting Belarusian aircraft from EU airspace.

The Ryanair landing has recently begun to dredge up events from the past, specifically one incident that saw Austrian forces in July 2013 ground a plane belonging to former Bolivian President Evo Morales at the US’ behest.

At the time, the grounding incident took place after reports had emerged that US whistleblower Edward Snowden had been aboard Morales’ plane. However, those claims later proved to be unfounded as a search of the aircraft did not turn up the former American contractor.

Asked to address the striking similarities, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki chose to instead brush off the inquiry made during a Monday press briefing. Incidentally, Psaki served as the spokesperson for the US State Department when the 2013 incident emerged.

Earlier Monday, US President Joe Biden informed reporters that he was weighing the possibility of issuing sanctions against Belarus over the Ryanair incident, but urged that he did not want to “speculate until we get it done.”