MOSCOW — The airspace over Eastern Europe turned into a geopolitical checkerboard on Thursday, as Russia rejected some European flights that were avoiding Belarus, the latest salvo in the furor over the forced landing of a passenger jet with a Belarusian dissident onboard. New information emerged on Thursday that further undermined the Belarusian government’s claim that it brought down the flight on Sunday because of a bomb threat, and not for the purpose of seizing the dissident, Roman Protasevich. A Swiss email provider said that the email Belarusian authorities have cited as the bomb threat was in fact sent after the plane had already been diverted. Russian aviation authorities on Thursday declined to approve new flight plans for an Air France flight and an Austrian Airlines flight to Moscow that would have looped around Belarusian airspace. With Lithuania now barring arriving flights that have crossed over Belarus, the Russian state-owned airline Aeroflot canceled a flight from Moscow to Vilnius, Lithuania, that ordinarily would have passed through Belarusian airspace.

Source: International New York Times May 27, 2021 17:39 UTC