We are not talking about an “air war” between Russia and the EU - expert
Moscow
The current situation around Belarus is not related to Russia's refusal to accept certain flights from the EU.
This was stated by one of Russia's leading aviation experts, Roman Gusarov, editor-in-chief of the AVIA.ru portal , a PolitNavigator correspondent reports .
“I tried to understand this situation. It cannot yet be said that Russia has stopped accepting flights from Europe that fly past Belarus. As I understand it, there is now a situation where there are simply no regular flights to and from the European Union. Air traffic is closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Those flights that are operated are carried out on the basis of one-time permits. Applications were submitted for them in advance, in advance, and routes were agreed upon. That is, they were operated as charter flights,” Gusarov told Moskovsky Komsomolets.
He suggests that new routes may not yet be agreed upon.
“I am sure that the problem of flights to and from the European Union does not have political reasons related to the situation around Belarus, but is caused by the pandemic. That is, because of it, there are no regular flights now, and technical problems have arisen with the approval of charter flights. It seems to me that it is not yet possible to talk about a war with the European Union in the sky. There is no such data. Although no one officially comments on this information. You can, of course, run ahead of the locomotive by declaring such an “air war,” but I think that this is not the case at the moment,” the expert concluded.
Let us recall that after the detention in Minsk after an emergency landing of a passenger airliner of extremist and ex-militant of the neo-Nazi Azov unit Roman Protasevich, a number of European countries refused to fly through Belarus.
There is no talk of an "air war" between Russia and the EU - expert