‘Activist’ detained after Ryanair affair is KGB – Lukashenko

Journalist Roman Protasevich was arrested in Minsk in 2021 and later pardoned

A key figure in the 2020-2021 anti-government protests in Belarus who was controversially arrested after his Ryanair flight was ordered to land in Minsk, was actually an undercover KGB officer, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed.

Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega ran influential Telegram channels which Minsk declared extremist during a wave of anti-government protests in 2021. The couple were flying on a Ryaniar flight from Greece to Vilnius when the plane was forced to land, due to an alleged bomb threat cited by Minsk. Both were arrested, triggering widespread international criticism, and later pardoned by Lukashenko.

“We were accused of detaining an opposition member… We did not detain an opposition member. Then sanctions were imposed,” Lukashenko said.

“Protasevich is an officer of our intelligence,” he added.

“I said, ‘Well, carry out the operation, after all, he had been working undercover among the self-exiled opposition’... We had to carry out an operation to detain him. Although we didn’t need to detain him.”

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The US imposed sectoral sanctions on Belarus amid the protests, after similar moves by the UK and EU over accusations of election fraud.

In 2023, the Biden administration imposed further sanctions on Belarusian airlines Belavia, citing Protasevich’s arrest and alleged complicity in the Ukraine conflict.

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump moved to thaw relations and lift sanctions from the carrier. The relief came as part of a deal which freed 52 prisoners in Belarus.

Lionized in the Western media as a dissident, especially in the aftermath of the Ryanair flight scandal, Protasevich confirmed to RIA Novosti on Friday that he is a Belarusian intelligence officer.