Belarus has been accused of “State-sponsored piracy” in the aftermath of its forced diversion of a passenger plane en route from Athens to Vilnius in order to facilitate the arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich and his partner Sofia Sapega.
The phrase is a powerful rhetorical invective that serves, in no uncertain terms, to denounce Belarus’ misdeeds. Indeed, pirates are often characterised as “enemies of all mankind”, a universally condemned outsider. And yet the word inevitably brings with it an air of romance, adventurous misdeeds and the daring subversion of authority.
