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EU and US accused of manipulating plane grounding incident to further regime change in Belarus
Security use a sniffer dog to check the luggage of passengers on the Ryanair plane with registration number SP-RSM, carrying opposition figure Roman Protasevich

THE European Union and the United States have been criticised for interfering in the internal affairs of Belarus, using the “unacceptable” grounding of a Ryanair plane to press for regime change.

EU leaders promised new sanctions on Belarus after a flight from Greece to Lithuania was grounded on Sunday and passenger Roman Protasevich, a Belarusian opposition journalist, was arrested.

Officials in Minsk claimed that they were responding to a bomb threat when they scrambled fighter jets, forcing Ryanair flight FR4978 to land in the Belarusian capital.

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