During a working trip to the Vitebsk region, Alexander Lukashenko told farmers that one of the leaders of the 2020 protests, Roman Protasevich, is an employee of the KGB.
According to Lukashenko, the Belarusian authorities did not need to kidnap Protasevich from the Ryanair passenger plane landed in Minsk. According to him, therefore, sanctions against Belarus after this incident should not have been imposed.
«I won't tell you for long. Protasevich is an employee of our intelligence. Did we need to detain him? But the question is, why were they flying to Vilnius, didn't land there, but turned around and flew to Minsk, landed after a call that they had some kind of explosive on board... Well, land, you were flying to Vilnius, were over Vilnius—land. They turned around, flew to Minsk. Landed in Minsk. I said: «Well, conduct the operation, he was working under cover of these fugitives. Conduct the operation properly»,— stated Lukashenko.
Roman Protasevich was the editor-in-chief of the opposition publication Nexta, which covered and coordinated mass protests in Belarus in 2020. He was detained in May 2021 after the forced landing of a Ryanair plane at the direction of Belarusian dispatchers.
Another co-founder of the channel, Stepan Putilo, and former editorial board member Yan Rudik were accused in Belarus of committing at least 1586 crimes. Putilo was sentenced in absentia by a court in Minsk to 20 years in a colony, Rudik to 19. Protasevich was sentenced on May 3, 2023, to eight years in a colony. Twenty days later, Lukashenko pardoned him.
Photo: Belta