Belarus' leader seeks Russia's support amid showdown with EU
MOSCOW (AP) — Belarus’ authoritarian leader will discuss closer economic ties with Russia on Friday, as he seeks support from his main backer amid a bruising showdown with the European Union over the forced diversion of a passenger jet to arrest a dissident journalist.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has found himself increasingly isolated after Belarusian flight controllers told the crew of a Ryanair plane to land because there was a bomb threat against it. No bomb was found once the place was on the ground, but 26-year-old journalist Raman Pratasevich was arrested along with his Russian girlfriend.
EU leaders called it piracy and responded by barring Belarusian carriers from the bloc's airspace and airports and advising European airlines to skirt Belarus. The bloc’s foreign ministers sketched out tougher sanctions Thursday to target the country’s lucrative potash industry and other sectors that are the main cash-earners for Lukashenko’s government.
The dispute has pushed Lukashenko, who has relentlessly stifled dissent during his rule of more than a quarter-century, even closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the two will meet Friday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for talks on closer economic ties, according to the Kremlin. Earlier in the day, the two countries' prime ministers met in Minsk to pave the way for the presidents' talks.
The two ex-Soviet nations have signed a union agreement that calls for close political, economic and military ties, but that stops short of a full merger. Moscow has helped buttress Belarus’ economy with cheap energy supplies and loans, but the ties have often been strained with Lukashenko scolding Moscow for trying to force him to relinquish control over prized economic assets and eventually abandon Belarus’...
