DISINFO: Protasevich is not only a putschist, he is an instrument of the EU
SUMMARY
Protasevich is not only a putschist, he is an instrument of the EU to enforce its foreign policy interests. A dirty instrument.
The EU is foaming at the mouth, but has hardly any means in hand to react.
RESPONSE
Disinformation about the forced landing of Ryanair flight 4978 and EU foreign policy.
The claims are pure cases of disinformation - there is no connection between NEXTA founder Raman Pratasevich, arrested in Minsk during the forced emergency landing of a Ryanair plane, and the interests of the EU's foreign policy. RT tries to draw parallels that do not exist.
On Sunday, 23 May 2021, a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to turn back minutes before crossing the Lithuanian border and land in the Belarusian capital. The pretext for landing in Minsk was a false report about a 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. It was not the decision of the Ryanair pilot to land in Minsk (see our article here).
Belarusian opposition journalist and a critic of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Raman Pratasevich was detained during a repeated security check of passengers. Belarusian authorities are persecuting him due to activities in reporting on the 2020 presidential election on his NEXTA Telegram channel used by the country's opposition. The Belarusian security service, KGB, has listed him as a terrorist (Read more about Pratasevich here).
The EU condemned Belarusian action against a 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 his immediate release. 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 Polish authorities accused Belarus of “state terrorism”.
Read similar disinformation cases alleging that Minsk forced the Ryanair flight to land in full accordance with international law and that forcing down aircraft is common practice among special forces.