DISINFO: Western secret services leaked information about Pratasevich’s journey to Minsk
SUMMARY
The situation with an emergency landing of the Ryainair flight was provoked by the Western secret services.
This operation was a pretext to ban Belarusian flights over the territory of the EU,
It is almost certain, that the information about the Pratasevich's presence on board of the plane was leaked to Minsk by the West.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narrative about Roman Pratasevich and the forced diversion of Ryanair flight FR4978. Part of a series of messages designed to confuse the audience with smokescreen explanations, the message presents an unfounded claim that Western intelligence services leaked information about Protasevich's journey to Belarusian special service and provoked Minsk to detain the journalist in order to close the sky of the EU for Belarusian airlines.
Actually, the President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda stated that a diversion of the Ryanair flight FR4978 from Athens to Vilnius and a forced landing in Minsk was a “state-sponsored terroristic act”. The Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis noted that “the forced landing of a commercial plane to detain a journalist is an unprecedented, shocking act”. In the statement of US President Joe Biden, the incident with Ryanair flight was evaluated as “diversion” (more about international reaction see here).
The EU condemned Belarusian action against a civil airplane 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.
The incident is investigated as an act of terrorism by Lithuanian authorities.
See other narratives of disinformation linked to the case of detaining of Roman Pratasevich and Ryanair incident: Security service of Ukraine could have set up the detainment of Pratasevich to harm Belarus; There is more than enough evidence that Roman Protasevich is a professional media extremist; Belarus acted in strict accordance with international law in the Ryanair incident; Hamas sent an e-mail to Minsk airport threatening to blow up a Ryanair flight over Vilnius; The Ryanair case is similar with the forced landing of Evo Morales’ plane.