A plane with “Russian spies” left Belgium for Moscow
Even though flights to the Russian capital are banned, a special status has been granted to this flight which brings back diplomats expelled from Belgium and the Netherlands and their families.
By the editor
VSn Sunday around 1:45 p.m., a plane that was not secret, let’s say very discreet, left the tarmac of Brussels airport with Moscow as its destination, via runway 07-25 Right. The invasion of Ukraine, flights between European capitals and Russia are however strictly prohibited, in one direction or the other. But it wasn’t just any plane. It is an Ilyuchin II-96 which accompanies the 21 Russian diplomats expelled by Belgium on March 29. They were not the only ones on board, accompanied by the 17 Russian diplomats expelled by the Netherlands. In total, with their families, 150 people boarded flight “RSD086” assigned to the Russian airline SLO Rossiya, based in Saint Petersburg but which belongs to the Russian government through the Aeroflot group and which was to be land in Moscow 746 later.
To authorize this particular flight, a long series of measures and procedures must be followed since this type of flight is prohibited. First, it was chosen to organize the boarding of passengers via the protocol generally applied for official diplomatic departures, even if the “expellees” were qualified as spies in Belgium and the Netherlands. Then, the air authorities had to agree to authorize and monitor (air control) the smooth running of the flight since European airspace is forbidden to Russian planes (just as Russian airspace is forbidden to European planes which therefore could not be used for this special operation either). For the air authorities, this type of flight is placed in the category of so-called “diplomatic or humanitarian” flights, which, in this case, causes a somewhat embarrassing juxtaposition of meanings.