Update: As expected, Russia has banned UK aircraft from their airspace. That effectively cancels BA’s London-Moscow route, and adds time to flights between the UK and Asia:
BA142, VS303, & VS379 taking a southern route to avoid Russian airspace today. Each flight normally transits Russia en route to London. https://t.co/XdpNzu0PwV pic.twitter.com/lpAmefGSUq
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 25, 2022
Originally posted on 2/24:
After Russia invaded Ukraine this morning, countries are rushing to implement sanctions in the hope of staving off further Russian ambitions. Those seem unlikely to deter Russia from toppling the Ukrainian government and installing their own puppet leader, but will allow the west to say that they’re doing something without triggering a world war.
The UK announced today that Aeroflot’s operating permit has been suspended and that no Russian aircraft can fly over UK airspace. That effectively cancels Aeroflot’s daily flight between Moscow and London. I’d expect Russia to retaliate against the UK.
Will the US follow the UK? It wouldn’t be unprecedented. President Reagan banned Aeroflot from the US in 1982 and closed their ticketing offices in the US the next year after the USSR downed Korean Air 007.
However Russia would be likely to retaliate and would close off their airspace to the US, which would effect many polar route flights, causing airlines to add time and stopovers to long-haul flights. Russia makes a small fortune selling overflight rights, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them forgo those fees to retaliate.
Personally, the Naama Issachar affair was enough to ensure that I don’t fly Aeroflot.
Do you think more countries will cut off Russian aircraft from their airspace? Will Russia do the same to countries that cut them off?
Our thoughts and prayers are with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. You can follow along the latest developments on DDF, where DansDeals site designer @Suave has been posting updates of his own escape from his adopted hometown of Odessa, Ukraine today and is asking for help bringing people to safety with his personal fund. @Suave also notes that you can donate funds to South Ukraine Emergency Fund here. There is also an emergency fund for the Kiev community here. And there is a Ukraine wide fund. Pray for peace!
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47 Comments On "[Russia Retaliates Against The UK!] The UK Bans Aeroflot And All Russian Aircraft From UK Airspace, Will Other Countries Follow?"
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Sorry – I don’t have the same sympathy for Naama. Yes, mistreated – but her fault and her doing
Not going to relitigate that, but everyone agreed she was nothing more than a scapegoat and bargaining chip. The punishment and charges of being a drug dealer didn’t fit the crime.
There wouldn’t have been an outcry if she was charged with simple possession and a short sentence.
@J
Cold hearted human.
I think the commenter J should go to prison to see what it’s like so he can think twice before passing judgement
I like your first paragraph summary of the situation.
Thanks, went for the succinct summary of how I see it. But my real question is when does China invade Taiwan?
They’re certainly watching this closely.
This is child’s play compared to the very likely upcoming Taiwan invasion
Indeed. That may actually trigger a world war.
At this point Taiwan is simply not worth going to war with China. We don’t have a required defense agreement and we basically recognize them as part of the mainland.
90+% of semiconductors are made in Taiwan. How would you feel about all of that becoming Chinese state controlled overnight?
Information is the new oil.
Yup. And Putin was watching Afghanistan (as I’m sure he was watching when Trump bombed Syria). Weakness whets their appetite
Definitely, though my theory is that Putin didn’t do this during the Trump years because he was hoping Trump would weaken or pull out of NATO.
How bad would’ve been no NATO if we avoided war and destruction?
If Russia retaliates, how is BA and VX going to fly to Asia?
With difficulty and more time.
you ment Virgin , that’s VS
The idea here is to get Russia not to go further. Its not about turning around what’s happening in Ukraine in the short term. Very very sad and tragic.
Where would they go further?
Putin is smart enough not to attack a NATO country. Belarus is already under his puppet control. And that’s his goal for Ukraine.
Georgia? Sanctions won’t stop Putin from taking it if he so desired.
Thought Putin was smart enough not to destroy his economy either, but yet he did. See what happened to MOEX and the ruble today. He can definitely go further if not stopped. The idea that he won’t go further doesn’t stand up when you look at how far he’s gone even though it has a cost – and will continue to cost – Russia dearly.
Again, where do you think he’ll go?
There’s a world of difference between attacking Ukraine and Estonia. One causes sanctions, one will trigger a world war.
Conquering and staying in Ukraine instead of going in and out, putting their troops/anti-aircraft, missiles etc., next to Romania, how far he will go in targeting Ukrainians and especially Ukrainians connected to America and yeh even going further touching NATO. There are endless amounts that Putin can do, and the question is whether he does it with impunity. I think we all know all too well what happened with pacification and Chamberlain.
I mean, I’d call the current sanctions a fairly Chamberlain-esque move.
Putin already price sanctions into account, and they were worse than this. He priced in SWIFT and overflight bans, while for former hasn’t happened and the latter only happened in the UK.
None of it is going to change the calculus. He wants a puppet government in Ukraine, not a war with the world in Romania.
Why would you call a 33% drop in MOEX and the lowest value of rubles in history pacification? I wish he would’ve stopped SWIFT (not sure the US can) and sanctioned Putin directly, but if you look at how this is affecting Russia, it’s a tremendous blow. Putin did prepare somewhat (and prepared for removal from SWIFT as well), but that doesn’t mean he isn’t being clobbered. It’s literally wiped out a third of MOEX and smashed the ruble. Why would you call that Chamberlain-esque? This is literally close to everything the global community can do without truly harming the global economy and sending troops.
It’s certainly something, but it’s all things that he priced into the equation.
If we actually wanted him to stop, it would have to include sanctions that he didn’t price into the equation. Killing SWIFT access and banning Russian flights from flying over all NATO and allied countries would be a good starting point for that.
About time the US re-upped oil production and began exporting.
I wonder if he did take this into calculation. I wonder if he realized how strongly the global community came together. I also don’t know what his end goal really is and how far he’s ready to go. It’s hard for me to comprehend how A rational man would be willing to do this when he gets this sort of repression. Ukraine was not a threat, and he never thought it was.
IMO, Moldova is next. It has its own breakaway region, so Putin can use the same ploy.
Sanctions were pretty weak because Germany opposed removal from SWIFT, need that natural gas. US aint the “leader” anymore, we protect no one
“Putin is smart enough not to attack a NATO country.”
And yet NATO countries are stupid enough not to make Ukraine a NATO country…..
What would that gain, my friend, except to make greater conflict more likely?
Sort of like Germany was smart enough not to break the Munich agreement…
Completely different circumstances and ambitions.
But don’t get it as 1 of the things Putin wanted is that the world should NOT allow Ukraine to join NATO and they flatly rejected that so WHY is non of the nato getting involved???
Let’s make Ukraine part of NATO NOW!!to punish Putin then we will all get involved as it’s a NATO country !!!
How is the world going to answer this, allowing putin to kill 100-1000 of people???
This is the way to another holocaust!!!????
Because the world doesn’t want to pick a nuclear war over Ukraine.
Even today historians still argue over what Germany’s foreign policy in WW2 was. I think it’s pretty clear that the leaders then and today lost free will when it comes to such enormous world ramifications. I assume when you are saying Putin isn’t stupid enough to etc etc, you are being optimistic and maybe realistic based on the common thinking but when things get to this level nature doesn’t always run it’s course as we assume the nature is.
@ James got a point.
Dan has some history to learn
This is Putin trying to pull off an Operation Himmler move
Russia bans British airways
How about Yolofsky? That wasn’t enough?
Every single upstanding country should ban Russia from their airspace! Maybe that’ll teach them something. Just the UK is by far not going to make any dent.
what happens if they cross the air space? either party? like seriously? they are gonna get shot down?
Scramble fighter jets and escort them out, under the threat of shootdown orders.
i’m a simple guy but i doubt fighter jets will shoot down an aircraft carrying civilians.
this is like biden saying yesterday lets wait a month and he how it plays out to do something more harsh. putin is the one who came out and dared anyone to interfere. this airspace thing doesnt really do anything. maybe i jus dont get it.
Obviously, as they would leave the airspace.
But it has happened before:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007
The point of this is to hurt Russia. If Russians can’t fly anywhere, they will put pressure on their government.
apparently, soviets shoot down planes. 🙂
my point is that i dont think in the broader scope this is significant. financial, swift, direct putin sanctions, that makes more sense. russia sits on the un security counsel for crying out loud. these guys talk a lot. lots of words. i just read one russian official said theyve been preparing for these sanctions since 2014 and the new ones arent insurmountable. nato/us etc all talk.
The US Navy shot down a civilian airliner and the Ukrainian military shot down a commercial airliner a few years ago. The world blamed Russia for it.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/26/russian-vessel-reportedly-seized-in-the-english-channel.html
Putin is looking less and less ‘smart’, commentators speculating he’s become insane. In other words no one down here is running the show