- Belarusian authorities detained a journalist after grounding his Lithuania-bound flight.
Belarus is facing sanctions from the European Union and the United States as a result.- Russian President Vladimir
Putin said he supported Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Russian President Vladimir Putin supported Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as he faces criticism for the arrest of Roman Protasevich, a 26-year-old journalist and opposition activist.
Belarusian authorities took Protasevich into custody after having his Lithuania-bound Ryanair flight grounded.
Lukashenko gave an "unequivocal order" to have the passenger plane ground in Minsk.
In a call between the two leaders, Putin said the criticism of Minsk was "an outburst of emotions," according to a record of the call released by the Kremlin.
"We have things to discuss even without these events. I mean to say that in the first quarter of this year, our trade grew by a considerable 18.4 percent, and
The support from Putin comes as the European Union agreed to impose sanctions on Belarus. The sanctions include a ban on its airlines from using the airspace and airports of EU member states.
The US also said it will re-impose full blocking sanctions against nine Belarusian state-owned enterprises and the Treasury Department said it will develop a new Executive Order for President Joe Biden to review that will give the US more power to impose sanctions on Lukashenko's regime.