This blog had diligently followed the case of the Belorussian regime changer Roman Protasevich and his Ryanair flight to Minsk. Last week the case reappeared but the quite sensational news of it caught little attention.
To recap a summary of the case as published here in May 2023:
Two years ago a Ryanair flight from Athens to Lithuania was diverted after the Belorussian flight control informed the pilot that it had received an email which said that the plane carried a bomb and would explode during landing in Lithuania.
The plane diverted to Minsk. All passengers stepped off board and where bused to the terminal. When they passed through passport control the immigration officers found that two of the passengers had outstanding arrest warrants against them. These were one Roman Protasevich and his Russian girlfriend and co-worker Sofia Sapega.
The ‘western’ media and politicians were up in arms over the ‘unprecedented’ incident. But the event was far from unprecedented.
Western media also failed to report that Roman Protasevich had been a western government financed neo-nazi who had fought with the fascist Ukrainian Azov battalion before working for U.S. sponsored regime change media in Poland. He was one of the persons who had directed the failed 2020 color-revolution in Belarus.
Belarus had handled the airplane incident by the book. During the following days claims were made that Belarus received the terror threat email after the plane was informed – i.e. the whole thing was a setup. However, Belarus has claimed that it received the threat email twice, once before it notified the pilots and another copy later.
Moon of Alabama has followed the case throughout. Those interested in the details of the original incident can find them in our June 2 2021 post. For a wider political view of the ‘color revolution’ business in east Europe see this piece by Kit Klarenberg. Links to all MoA posts about the case are listed at the end of this piece.
A week after the incident, during a long TV interview, Protasevich spilled the beans about the whole regime operation. He also says that he has come to believe that one of his regime changer colleagues had sent the bomb threat email to get him arrested.
A few weeks later Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega were released and put under house arrest. A trial followed and, in early May of this year, he was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Only a week or two after receiving his prison sentence Roman Protasevich was pardoned. A few days later his girl friend and partner in crime Sofia Sapega was also released. Little was heard of either of them since.
Until on October 31 the President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko let the cat out of the bag. He said that Protasevich had all along been a spy for his country.
As TASS summarizes:
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko revealed that Roman Protasevich, considered an opposition figure, is in fact a Belarusian intelligence officer.
“I won’t go into detail. Protasevich is an agent of our intelligence service,” the BelTA news agency quoted him as saying.
According to the Belarusian president, Protasevich posed as a representative of the “fugitive” Belarusian opposition. Before his “detention” at Minsk Airport, where his plane landed due to a bomb threat, Protasevich was on a mission from Greece.
“They turned around and flew to Minsk. They landed in Minsk. I said: ‘Well, carry out the operation properly, he was working undercover for these fugitives. Conduct the operation correctly,’” Lukashenko said.
In Greece, he added, Protasevich met with intelligence service representatives. “He was summoned there. He provided everything we were interested in to the intelligence officers. Then, he received his assignment and flew back. He flew back to where he worked via Vilnius,” he added.
This opens a new perspective on the whole issue.
The rerouting of the Ryanair flight to Minks was caused by a mysterious email. There was strong suspicion that it had been sent by someone in the expatriate Belorussian opposition movement who had a quarrel with Protasevich.
Or someone had found that he was a spy and sent the email to reroute the flight to expose him?
I wonder if we will ever find out …
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Previous coverage of the case published on Moon of Alabama:
- Lukashenko’s Revenge (Served Cold) – May 24, 2021
- Roman Protasevich – Arrested In Belarus – Is A Western Government Financed Neo-Nazi – May 26, 2021
- By The Book – What Really Happened With The Ryanair Flight In Belarus – May 27, 2021
- Ryanair Incident – Email Warning Received Before Plane Entered Belorussian Airspace – May 28, 2021
- How ProtonMail Lost The Public Trust It Needs To Do Business – May 29, 2021
- ‘Like An Amoral Infant’ – How ProtonMail Contributes To False Media Claims About Belarus – May 30, 2021
- Ryanair Bomb Threat In Belarus – ‘Western’ Media Narrative Disagrees With The Facts – May 31, 2021
- Timeline, Narrative Control And Consequences Of The Ryanair Incident In Belarus – June 2, 2021
- Roman Protasevich, Casualty Of The Ryanair Incident In Belarus, Is Spilling The Beans – June 4, 2021
- Putin Teaching A Journalist And Other New Bits Around Ryanair Flight 4978 – June 15, 2021
- U.S., UK Information Warfare Behind Regime Change Drive In Belarus by Kit Klarenberg – June 15, 2021
- ICAO Report – Ryanair Plane That Landed in Minsk Was NOT Forced Down – January 22, 2022
- Closing The Case Of Regime Changer Roman Protasevich And His Ryanair Flight To Minsk – May 26, 2023
- After Pardon Given To Regime Changer Roman Protasevich His Girlfriend Gets Released Too – Jun 8, 2023