Autocrats and Air Piracy

Serious questions remain about whether the authoritarian regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka acted alone in hijacking Ryanair Flight 4978 and kidnapping Belarusian dissident journalist Raman Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega. Did Lukashenka get a stealthy assist from Vladimir Putin's Russia in commandeering a commercial airliner travelling between two European Union countries? Was the Putin-Lukashenka axis of autocrats acting in concert in this brazen act of air piracy? And if so, what are the implications for Western policy?