Outrage mounts at Belarus’s use of air piracy in aid of repression

WESTERN STATESMEN have been competing with each other to express their horror and fury at what was tantamount to an act of piracy perpetrated by Belarus’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, on May 23rd. Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, said America “strongly condemns” the “shocking act”, in which Mr Lukashenko forced a Ryanair passenger plane to make an unscheduled stop in his capital in order to arrest Roman Protasevich, the co-founder and former editor of an internet channel, Nexta. Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, called it an “unprecedented act of state terrorism”. NATO branded the incident “serious and dangerous”. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, tweeted: “The outrageous and illegal behaviour of the regime in Belarus will have consequences.”

But translating that outrage into meaningful action is proving harder. EU leaders met in Brussels on the evening of May 24th for an already-arranged summit, at which Belarus was hastily added to the agenda. After a discussion over dinner, the leaders issued a brief statement which did about the minimum. They demanded the release of Mr Protasevich and his girlfriend, who was arrested with him. They called on all EU-based air carriers to avoid Belarusian airspace (an obvious precaution, which will do nothing to inconvenience Mr Lukashenko), and they agreed to close EU airports to Belarusian airlines, which will at least have some effect. Britain, no longer an EU member, had earlier in the day done exactly the same thing.