Belarus Leader Seeks Russian Support amid Showdown with EU

Belarus Leader Seeks Russian Support amid Showdown with EU

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, smiles as he listens to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during their meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Friday, May 28, 2021. (AP)

Russia's President Vladimir Putin met Friday with his counterpart from Belarus for talks on forging closer ties amid Minsk's bruising showdown with the European Union over the diversion of a passenger jet to arrest a dissident journalist.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has found himself increasingly isolated since flight controllers told the crew of a Ryanair plane to land in Minsk on Sunday citing an alleged bomb threat. No bomb was found, but 26-year-old journalist Raman Pratasevich was arrested along with his Russian girlfriend.

EU leaders denounced it as air piracy and responded by barring Belarusian carriers from the bloc's airspace and airports and advising European airlines to skirt Belarus. EU foreign ministers sketched out tougher sanctions Thursday to target the country's lucrative potash industry and other cash-earning sectors.

At the start of his talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi with Putin, Lukashenko ranted about the EU sanctions, describing them as an attempt to reignite the opposition protests that followed his reelection in August that was widely rejected as rigged.

"It's an attempt to