Russia approves trips around Belarus | abroad

Last week, a French and Austrian aircraft were rejected because they did not want to fly over Belarus. The reason is the riot due to the emergency landing of a Ryanair plane carrying the Belarusian dissident Roman Petrosevich. She campaigned on social media against the authoritarian regime in Belarus. He was arrested after landing in Minsk.

Air France said its aircraft will be able to fly from Paris to Moscow via a different route, starting on Saturday. The Russian permission is in effect for this weekend, and the French are still waiting for an agreement before Sunday. The airline flies to Moscow once or twice a day.

A Lufthansa spokesman said alternative routes had been granted for flights from Frankfurt to Moscow and St. Petersburg “for the foreseeable future”. The airline operates four roundtrip flights to Moscow and three to Saint Petersburg per week.

Western countries have imposed sanctions on Belarus and are avoiding that country’s airspace. The Kremlin supports Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. The agreement with Air France and Lufthansa indicates that Russia does not intend to refuse all flights avoiding Belarus. As far as is known, the KLM has not disturbed anything yet and flies fifteen times a day through Russian airspace.