DISINFO: Pratasevich was abandoned by the West to provoke sanctions against Belarus
SUMMARY
Poor Pratasevich was not needed anymore and therefore he was thrown away by the West. The West needs scandals to create a pretext for sanctions [against Belarus]. From time to time, they use people to portray them as the victims of the regime and Navalny-style prisoners of consciousness.
RESPONSE
Disinformation denigrating the Belarusian dissident journalist Raman Pratasevich.
There is no evidence to suggest that Pratasevich was in any way part of any Western effort (or secret service - as the claim aims to suggest). The Telegram channel, of which Pratasevich was an editor and which played an important part in supporting anti-Lukashenka protests last year, was operated by Belarusian dissidents in Poland, not the Polish state or any Western entity.
On Sunday, May 23, 2021, the Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to turn back before crossing the Lithuanian border and land in the Belarusian capital. The pretext for landing in Minsk was a false report about the bomb on board. At the moment when the plane changed course, it was closer to Vilnius airport than to Minsk. The plane was forced to land in the Belarusian capital by a Belarusian military aircraft.
Roman Protasevich was detained during a repeated security check of passengers. Belarusian authorities persecuting him due to activities in reporting on the 2020 presidential election on his NEXTA channel on Telegram used by the country's opposition. The Belarusian security service, KGB, has listed him as a terrorist (Read more about Pratasevich here). Together with Roman Pratasevich was detained his girlfriend, a citizen of the Russian Federation Sofia Sapega.
The EU condemned Belarusian action against civil plane and the detention of Pratasevich. In a declaration on behalf of the EU on the forced diversion of Ryanair flight FR4978 to Minsk on 23 May 2021, the High Representative called for the immediate release of Mr Pratasevich. This was followed by a European Council statement, in which the EU leaders called for targeted individual and economic sanctions as well as to ban overflight of EU airspace by Belarusian airlines and prevent access to EU airports of flights operated by these.
Pro-Kremlin media outlets have used a similar strategy to distract attention from the poisoning and the disputed imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny. See here more disinformation cases about Navalny being a Western agent.
See more cases about Raman Pratasevich and the Ryanair hijacking here.