Commenting on reports that the EU could announce restrictions on the airline, Europe’s fourth largest, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told RIA Novosti on Thursday that “of course there would be some kind of a reaction” if the plans went ahead.
“We aren’t surprised by this, because the impression is that when it comes to any international problem, the EU doesn’t enter into a dialogue with the parties concerned, but prefers to immediately grab the sanctions truncheon and mindlessly swing it,” Grushko blasted.
The day before, Bloomberg reported that Brussels was considering sanctioning Aeroflot, potentially along with Turkish Airlines, for the firms’ purported role in ferrying migrants to Belarus. EU officials say that flights have been laid on from troubled nations like Iraq, Syria and Iran, with would-be asylum seekers given clearance to enter Belarus and encouraged to travel to the border.
Later on Thursday, Aeroflot announced that it operates no scheduled flights from either Iraq or Syria, and doesn’t fly a route between Minsk and Istanbul, where many would-be asylum seekers are living temporarily. In a statement, aviation bosses confirmed that the airline also does not charter flights on these routes.
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Polish security forces are on highest alert in connection with the crisis on the border with Belarus, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Thursday.
ReplyDelete"I assure that Poland is ready to repulse this action by the services of the Lukashenko regime. Our Border Guard, the Polish Army, the police and other services are on highest alert," Duda said in a televised address.
Possible EU sanctions against Russian carrier Aeroflot over its alleged role in the migrant crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border would bring an immediate closure of Russian airspace to European airlines, which badly need the direct Siberian route to Asia, Xavier Moreau, an expert of geopolitics with the StratPol think tank, told Sputnik on Thursday.
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