Chapter 1283: The farce of the thief crying "stop thief"

Xiao Peng wasn't surprised by Lukashenko's statement. It's either the EU or Russia that's interested in the Belarusian election. So, is it true that Uganda in Africa is interested in the Belarusian election? That's like burning newspapers at a grave—a lie!

Lukashenko said: "Some time ago, a major event happened in our country. Now it seems that it is a conspiracy against our country."

"What's the matter?" Xiao Peng asked puzzledly.

Lukashenko explained: "Some time ago, when an Irish Ryanair passenger plane passed over Belarus, our country received an alert. Someone said there was a bomb on the plane, so our country sent fighter jets to intercept the plane and make an emergency landing in Minsk. However, in the end we did not find a bomb on the plane, but we did find an opposition member on our country's wanted list, so we arrested him."

Xiao Peng's face was filled with gloom. "Hey, Lukashenko, isn't what you said a coincidence? Didn't you stop the plane because you knew this person was on it?"

Lukashenko shook his head. "In fact, this incident was not our doing. We were informed of this information by Swiss intelligence, and we were not the only country informed, including all EU countries. At the time, the passenger plane was about to leave Belarus. The nearest landing point was not Minsk, and Belarus did not require them to land there. The captain chose to land in Minsk on his own initiative. The passenger plane turned in the sky and flew towards Minsk. After all, it is our capital. How could we not send fighter jets to accompany it? The final capture of the wanted criminal was really a coincidence."

"I'm not trying to shift the blame. This passenger plane was an Aer Lingus flight from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. All three of these are EU countries, and they passed through many other EU countries along the way, but nothing happened. It was only when they were over Belarus that Swiss security issued a bomb alert. Furthermore, the plane was about to enter Lithuanian airspace, so the captain turned back and flew to Minsk!"

After hearing this, Xiao Peng thought for a moment and asked, "What happened next?"

Lukashenko said, "What happened next? What we did, including intercepting planes, searching for bombs, and arresting wanted criminals, would be considered 'reasonable and legal' in any Western country. But when it came to us, it became a mistake. They said we were using a false security threat as an excuse to hijack a plane in their airspace to arrest criminals, and they defined our actions as 'hijacking'! Of course, our country was subject to a series of EU sanctions, and they also banned their flights from flying over Belarusian airspace, and neither our planes were allowed to fly over their airspace."

After hearing this, Xiao Peng exclaimed, "Wow, you guys have lost a lot of small amounts of money."

Flying through another country's airspace is not free, and you have to pay a "toll". Belarus is a transit route for several European countries to fly to Asia, and it receives a lot of "transit fees" every year.

"Isn't this just a self-directed farce of the thief crying thief?" Xiao Peng frowned.

Lukashenko said: "That's right. The wanted criminal we arrested is called Protashevich. He has already confessed everything."

"Wait!" Xiao Peng interrupted Lukashenko. "Is the Protashevich you're talking about the one who tried to assassinate the president a few years ago?"

"That's him!" said Lukashenko.

Xiao Peng's face was filled with gloom. This Protashevich was, in some ways, a formidable figure. He was only in his twenties, yet he was already on Belarus' most-wanted terrorist list. Despite his youth, this guy had been actively involved in various rebellious activities since childhood, later receiving specialized training in Ukraine. After returning to his country, he had organized several large-scale riots and even attempted to assassinate the Belarusian president. If he wasn't on the wanted list, who would be?

"According to his account, he boarded that flight arranged by Western 'allies,'" Lukashenko said.

Xiao Peng whistled. "Damn, reality is truly even more illogical than movies and TV. Even a movie script couldn't conceive of a plot like this. As the saying goes in our country: 'You can always find a pretext to accuse someone of a crime.' Isn't this just like when the Americans took 'washing powder' and called it a biological weapon? Lukashenko, don't call me harsh. We have a saying in our country that 'weak nations have no diplomacy,' and you're still a bit weak right now. Look, they do the same thing and nothing happens. You really should complain to Bolivian President Morales."

Xiao Peng was referring to an incident that happened a few years ago.

Bolivian President Morales was visiting Moscow. As his plane was returning home, Spain, Portugal, and France, acting under US instructions, closed their airspace to Morales's plane, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Vienna. The reason given was that "Snowden was hiding on the plane." After the forced landing, a group of people forcibly boarded Morales' plane and searched it. After searching without finding Snowden, they were allowed to leave. In the end, the matter was dismissed with a few perfunctory apologies.

The president's plane was arbitrarily seized, and the words "no diplomacy" were vividly reflected.

In fact, this is not an isolated case. In 2004, the US forced the plane of former Russian First Deputy Finance Minister Vavilov to land and interrogate him for several hours. In 2012, Turkey directly dispatched fighter jets to intercept a plane flying between Moscow and Damascus and seized the cargo on board. In 2016, a Belarusian passenger plane was intercepted and forced to land by Ukraine, and then the US boarded the plane to arrest people.

But these things basically end up in nothing. When they do the same thing, it is considered "just" and "legal", but when others do it, it is considered "a violation of international rules and requiring sanctions."

Lukashenko said: "Now Russia and Belarus have embarked on the path of 'Russian-Belarusian integration'. Belarus has passed a decree allowing Russia to station troops on its territory. Of course, our integration is within the framework of the Union State. It does not mean that one economy will be absorbed by another, but rather that economic complementarity will be achieved through integration... At least that is what we hope."

Xiao Peng was shocked after hearing this. "What did you say? Allowing Russia to station troops in the country? Is the situation already that serious?"

You must know that what the Belarusian president has always been worried about is Russia's annexation of Belarus. The fact that he allows Russia to station troops in Belarus shows that the seriousness of the matter has exceeded imagination.

Lukashenko picked up the wine glass on the table and drank it all: "Belarus has been cut off from the SWIFT system!"

Xiao Peng couldn't sit still after hearing this and jumped up from the sofa: "What did you say?"