Moscow enters the arm wrestling between Belarus and the EU, which broke out following the hijacking of the Ryanair flight to Minsk Athens-Vilnius with the opponent Roman Protasevich on board. Two Air France flights Paris-Moscow and one of Austrian Airlines Vienna-Moscow, who had to travel between yesterday evening and today on routes bypassing the airspace of Belarus, as suggested by the competent European authorities They have been deleted because Russia did not allow entry. They report it France Info and the Interfax agency, according to which Air France itself explained that it had not received the permit to enter the Federation’s airspace. An Interfax source explained that formally regular air connections between France and Russia are not resumed, due to the restrictions related to Covid, and for this reason each flight “requires separate approval from the Russian aviation authorities”.
Urged by journalists on the issue, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov called for contact with the authorities responsible for aviation. “The presidential administration is not involved in air traffic control,” he commented succinctly.
Soon after also Austrian Airlines, owned by Germany’s Lufthansa, confirmed that its flight was canceled due to Russia’s refusal to authorize the new route around Belarus. The Austrian airline, as well as Air France, is avoiding flying over Belarusian airspace, following the recommendations of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which deems it risky to enter the skies of the former Soviet republic after the episode of the forced landing of the Ryanair flight, justified by a bomb alarm which later turned out to be false. Meanwhile, the Russian national airline Aeroflot has made it known that will take over some of the passengers on Air France’s Paris-Moscow flight canceled today.