International outrage, the genesis of political jokes joke

Irrespective of the tedious mother-in-law cliché, the newest political joke about Belarus’ Alexandr Lukashenko was to be expected:

In an e-mail to the President of Belarus, a hapless son-in-law writes, “My mother-in-law is taking the next Ryanair flight number 1268 from Paris to Moscow and will be flying over you territory at around 8:00 pm. I distinctly heard her criticizing you regime this Sunday at the dinner table. You are welcome.”

The joke of course is a cynical reference to the forced landing of a passenger airliner over Belarus territory recently. Specifically, Lukashenko ostensibly scrambled a military jet to forcibly land a passenger plane because of a “bomb report” that turned out to be fake. The Lithuania-bound flight was diverted to Minsk, where journalist Roman Protasevich was arrested for being involved in “extremism”. Protasevich is well known for his pro-democracy activism and has lived in self-exile for fear of Lukashenko’s reprisal.