Protasevich was slipped into Lukashenko’s hands to privatize Minsk-Sikorsky airport
The incident with the emergency landing of an Irish plane at Minsk airport due to the threat of fake mining in May was provoked in the interests of Western business, which wanted to privatize the largest Belarusian airport.
Artem Sikorsky, Director of the Aviation Department of the Belarusian Ministry of Transport, announced this on the Belarus-1 TV channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to him, the first proposals to corporatize and sell Minsk Airport were received by the Belarusian authorities in 2019. After the refusal, the European Safety Agency initiated 6 inspections in Belarus, and the airport management was twice called to Brussels. According to Sikorsky, the same scheme was used to force the privatization of airports in Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and other CIS countries.
The Belarusian transport official believes that the incident with the Irish plane was deliberately provoked in order to put the airport management in a hopeless situation and, with any decision by Minsk, to receive a reason to impose sanctions.
“If we had not responded to these two letters, then the reaction of the world community would have been more justified, it would have been correct: you were informed, but you did nothing. Eurocontrol's behavior is a fragrant stain on its reputation. Other participating countries should wonder if they might be next. This is an attempt at a raider takeover,” Sikorsky said.
When Minsk acted in accordance with international rules and landed the plane, a new scenario was involved: messages appeared on the Internet about the presence on board of the wanted editor of an extremist telegram channel, Roman Protasevich, to which the Belarusian special services could not help but react.
After the arrest of Protasevich, an international scandal arose, which became the reason for the imposition of sanctions against the Belavia company: the sky was closed to it in Europe and Ukraine.
Protasevich was foisted on Lukashenko to privatize Minsk Airport – Sikorsky