Russification

Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Friday in a critical display of Moscow's support for Lukashenko's regime, a day after the UN civil aviation agency announced it would investigate Sunday's diversion of a Ryanair plane and the arrest of a journalist on board.

The parents of Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich and his fellow NEXTA founder Stsiapan Putsila appealed to Western governments at a press conference organised at the Belarusian House in Warsaw to step up efforts to save the life of the imprisoned 26-year-old.

The United States and western European members of the U.N. Security Council called on May 26 for the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to investigate Belarus' diversion of a European flight and arrest of a dissident on board.

Their call came hours after a defiant President Alexander Lukashenko on May 26 defended the action, lashing out at critics at home and abroad.

The Belarusian leader said "ill-wishers" are "trying to strangle Belarus" in his first speech since a commercial flight was intercepted and a critical blogger arrested.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko hit out at Western powers on Wednesday, saying that his country's "ill-wishers" are "trying to strangle Belarus."

In addition to reporting on Belarusian security forces' violent crackdown against peaceful demonstrators, Nexta had provided daily instructions on when, where, and how Belarusians should mobilize during last fall's countrywide mass protests against Lukashenko's bogus election victory. Its Sunday calls for a National March for Freedom brought as many as 200,000 people into the streets of Minsk.

The European Union agreed May 24 to impose sanctions on Belarus, including banning its airlines from using the airspace and airports of the 27-nation bloc, amid fury over the forced diversion of a passenger jet to arrest an opposition journalist.

Police officers detain journalist Roman Protasevich attempting to cover a rally in Minsk, Belarus, 26 March 2017. Photo: EPA-EFE/STRINGER

Belarus has been accused of "hijacking" a civilian airliner by forcing a Ryanair passenger flight to land in the country using a fake bomb threat so that authorities could arrest a prominent critic of its authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarus forced a passenger plane carrying a wanted opposition activist to divert and land in its capital, provoking a furious outcry from world leaders who described it as an "act of state terrorism" ahead of an EU summit on May 24 expected to toughen sanctions on Minsk.

Journalists from the Belarusian opposition news portal Nexta have accused long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko of large-scale corruption in a online video with millions of views.

Almost 2 million people had already watched the video of the investigation titled "Lukashenko: A gold mine," one day after it was posted to YouTube by a group of journalists exiled in Poland.