Join the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and the New York University Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia for a discussion on the implications the Ryanair incident for US and EU relations with Belarus and Moscow.

The forced landing of a Ryanair flight by Belarusian authorities and coerced detention of dissent journalist Roman Protasevich has spotlighted the practice of transnational repression: the targeting of political exiles and opposition figures abroad by authoritarians and their security services. President Lukashenko’s brash act has been referred to as a “state-sponsored” hijack and has prompted the EU to terminate flights by Belarsus’s national carrier, avoid the use of Belarusian airspace, and consider adding more sectoral and individual sanctions. At the same time, Russian Present Vladimir Putin has strongly supported Lukashenko and Western condemnation appears to be further driving Minsk into the political embrace of Moscow. A panel of experts will discuss the situation and its implications for the region.

Speakers

Hanna Liubakova, freelance journalist and researcher; Nonresident Fellow at the Atlantic Council

Tatyana Margolin, regional director, Open Society Foundations Eurasia Program

Nate Schenkkan, director, Research Strategy at Freedom House

Yuval Weber, chair of Russian Military and Political Strategy, Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare, Marine Corps University; research assistant professor, Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service

Alexander Cooley, director, Harriman Institute, Columbia University

Joshua Tucker, director, Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, New York University