of the trip yesterday and hinted that there might be some movement on europeans and their reliance on russian energy obviously, the u.s. has put into place an import on russian oil and gas. europe hasn t done so, they re far more reliant on it than the u.s. what might be able to be accomplished on that front. that is a big priority here, as well. as you mentioned, the united states has gone further in its full ban of imports of russian oil and gas, but it s been a more sensitive issue in europe, particularly in germany, which is much more reliant on russian oil and gas and cannot fully withdraw as quickly as the united states has done i think that is expected to be a topic of conversation, and the u.s. is hoping it can make some progress on that issue but i think it remains unclear at this point exactly what steps the u.s. can help its western allies in europe take to try to make it less reliant, at least in the short term. i think that s a long-term goal,
capital. the flight crew was told because of a possible security threat. but it since become clear it was something else entirely. when a journalist and critic of the president of belaruse was taken off and arrested. joining me now with more detail on this is cnn fred plykin. what you are learning about this? hi, there kate. it is something that europe hasn t seen in a very long time if ever at all. all this actually happened late yesterday. this was traveling from athens in it greece and then supposed to fly to lithuania. but while it was in belarusian airspace, the authorities told the crew of the plane to divert to minsk and to land there. they claimed that there was a bomb threat onboard. the plane that made a sharp right turn and sort of dissending there. now this journalist and activist, he pleaded with the crew not to do this. no the to land there. but they said according to the security protocols, that s what
a commercial flight with marriages onboard brought down with fighter jets. nato is calling for an investigation into this ryanair flight that was forced by a fighter jet to land in minsk, the capital of belarus. an activist was onboard and arrested after the plane landed. cnn s frederik pleitgen is live for us this morning. just to be clear, the leader of belarus is considered to be one of the last true dictators in the world, this plane forced to land a commercial plane in midair, forced to land by a fighter jet. what s going on here? reporter: yeah, it s something europe hasn t seen in a very long time. you re absolutely right. alexander lukashenko of behm la ruse is certainly considered to be the last dictator in europe and has been in power for the last 26 years. he had some protests against him last year. that seems to be why he wanted
he loved my brother had amazing love for life. and he wanted it so bad. and this is more you know, the more video that is released, i can t imagine what it feels like to have to hear it. at one point in this video that has come out, you hear the officer actually the supervising officer saying that you all did a good job. we don t know we do not know the full extent, the full context around that moment. but how does that impact you? i m pissed off. i am pissed off. i m pissed off. why? i m angry. i can t believe that they re actually patting each other on the backs for this. unbelievable. to see that there hasn t been any arrest made to date, unbelievable.
continent against incursions from the east and that won t change. and conversations between american military leaders at the top of the food chain and european military leaders at the top of the food chain, that hasn t changed. and donald trump s impact on that is going to be unchanged as well. colonel, we re getting news from reuters now basically out of russia saying that news that nato plans to increase its defense spending confirms the russian concerns over the alliance s expansion. could you react to that for us? yeah, i m not surprised at all. as a matter of fact, i think that we ll see increasing expenditures even in difficult economic times from europe on defense generally. don t forget that the united states has a significant number of americans deployed in europe. we have them deployed in the baltic countries, primarily