Putin Says If Lukashenko Indeed Forced Ryanair Plane To Land, He Was Inspired By US

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with NBC that it was the Ryanair pilot's decision to land the plane in Belarus, and even if he was forced to do so by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, it was only because the latter was inspired by the US' 2013 grounding of the Bolivian president's plane

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th June, 2021) Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with NBC that it was the Ryanair pilot's decision to land the plane in Belarus, and even if he was forced to do so by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, it was only because the latter was inspired by the US' 2013 grounding of the Bolivian president's plane.

"The pilot made a decision to land in Minsk. That is all. Why should I not believe him? Ask the pilot. It's the simplest thing. Ask the chief pilot. Ask the commander of the aircraft. Did you ask him if was he forced to land? Because I have not heard or seen an interview with the commander of the aircraft that landed in Minsk.

Why not ask him? ... Everybody accuses Lukashenko, but the pilot hasn't been asked," Putin said.

He then recalled a similar situation when the US administration forced the Bolivian president's plane to land in Vienna.

"Air Force One, a presidential plane, was forced to land. The President was taken out of the aircraft. They searched the plane. And you don't even recall that. Do you think it was normal, that was good, but what Lukashenko did was bad? Look, let us speak the same language and let us use the same concepts. If, well, Lukashenko is a gangster, how about the situation with the Bolivian President? ... Nobody is recalling that," Putin said.