A tale of love, protest and betrayal

Lukashenko looks on during joint military exercises with Russia at a military training site near Asipovichy, Belarus. — The New York Times

WHEN Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko sent an MiG fighter jet to intercept a Ryanair passenger plane carrying an exiled anti-government activist and his girlfriend two years ago, he turned the young dissident into a martyr of the struggle for democracy.

The plane, flying from Greece to Lithuania, was forced to land in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, after authorities there claimed falsely that there was a bomb on board.