Originally Posted by
Beamr
So what horse did Russia have in this event? If there really were four Russian Spetznaz/FSB/OMON other special ops, why were they there and why taking action on behalf of Belarus?
Testing the waters for future kidnappings of Russian citizens abroad. Just like Russia tested a tougher approach against protesters in Belarus a few months ago (Russia even sent their TV anchors there), and then applied it on its own soil.
Originally Posted by
Less Hair
I don't seem to understand: First Belarus reported that their President had ordered the diversion to Minsk and now they say the crew requested it?
It's the usual "unpredictive past" in a dictatorship. It helps create confusion over what really happened.
Originally Posted by
John4321
If the Belarus government want the claim this incident wasn’t a hijacking, simply release Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend unharmed.
The weird thing is, releasing them will not change anything in respect to the hijacking. The offense here was forcing the plane to land, not arresting a wanted person after it was on the ground. If they forced it to land illegally, it remains a hijacking even if they release these people. If they didn't force, but merely tricked it into landing at MSQ, it is not a hijacking.
All Belarus needs to do is to find a non-government scapegoat who sent in the bomb threat. Assuming of course there were no direct threats by the ATC or the MIG fighter jet against the plane.