While in 2020 he compared Lukashenko’s repression to Hitler, today he is a renegade of the opposition who condemned his former allies and praises the benevolence of the Belarusian dictator.
In May 2021, the Belarusian authorities forced the Ryanair aircraft on the route from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk, there was talk of an international scandal. The instruction for the landing for the alleged bomb was to personally be issued by Belarusian President Alexandr Lukashenko, and the army was even threatened by shooting down the plane.
There were 100 passengers on board, including Belarusian activity and co -founding of the Nexta Raman Pratasevič, which was one of the main sources of information at the time of anti -government protests in Belarus after the presidential election in 2020.
“Don’t do it, they’ll kill me, I’m a refugee,” the British quotes a 26-year-old activist. He said these words told the fellow travelers when he learned that they would land in Minsk.
The shots that were created during the protests in Minsk on August 24, 2020, shows the Belarusian President of the rifle.
Approached the Somali pirates
Lithuania described the incident as an act of state terrorism and the Democratic Belarusian opposition, predominantly concentrated in Vilnius, compared Alexander Lukashenko and his regime to the “Somali pirates”. Similarly, sharp words were heard from Ireland when Ryanair’s chief Michael O’Leary described the forced landing as a “state -supported kidnapping”.
However, the captains had no choice and had to land. The plane was searched, they did not find the bomb, but during the personal inspection they detained Pratasevič and his girlfriend. Four passengers did not continue with them. Ryanair chief assumes that on board the aircraft were the agents of the Belarusian secret service KGB.
The incident has aggravated the already tense relations between Belarus and the European Union, which banned unijacked airlines any travel through the Belarusian airspace. The EU has added several other sanctions after Belarus helped Russia in the invasion of Ukraine.
After about two weeks of arrest, the Belarusian state television broadcasted an interview during which Pratasevič confessed to the planning of anti -government protests and appreciated Belarusian leader Lukashenko. The activist was crying several times and covered his face with his hands. When he did it, his wrists were clearly visible traces of handcuffs.
The co -workers or family living in exile responded to the young man’s video outraged and accused the authorities of making him confessed under hard physical and mental pressure and “maybe under drugs.”
From the hero of the Deligant
However, with the passage of time and the development of the situation, the regret to Pratasevič was declining. Just 10 days after his announcement on television it became clear that they placed a former activist in house arrest.
His then girlfriend Sapega was placed in an apartment in Minsk and Pratasevič to an unknown place, allegedly under the supervision of a secret police. “It was at least a significantly different fate than the majority of political prisoners await in the country,” he comments
While home prison for most people in Belarus means zero contact with the outside world and zero access to technologies, Pratasevič in August 2021 set up his own news channel on the telegram where he gave space to regime followers. He revealed who drank too much opposition in exile, lived beyond the situation, or participated in orgies. He condemned the founder of Nexty Scsiapan Putsil and told wild stories about how protests against Lukashenko organized and funded Western news services in 2020.
At the darkest moment of his imprisonment, Pratasevič condemned his former girlfriend Sofia Sapeg, who was arrested with him and measured her six years in prison. He publicly announced a break from home prison and said he was married to another woman, publishing their photograph on the wedding day.
In addition, Raman Pratasevič tried to condemn his former girlfriend and stressed that she was working against the country’s security forces.
In 2023, a trial was held in which Pratasevič was sentenced to eight years in prison, but never joined custody. Almost immediately he received mercy from the President. “Lukashenko’s goal was simple and clear: to break Ramo’s personality and make him a tool, the tool of Lukashenko’s policy,” said Franak Viačorka, head of the exile of Belarusian leader Svetlana Cichanov, who met Pratasevic in Vilnius before his arrest. “And he achieved it. ”
According to Belarusian human rights observers, more than 50,000 people have been arbitrarily detention since 2020 for participation in peaceful protests, with 6,550 were prosecuted and convicted and 3,697 were sentenced to imprisonment. Many were exposed to torture and other bad treatment. Since 2021, at least seven political prisoners have died in custody, of which five of them only in 2024. According to these deaths, this death could have been prevented and the result of the conditions of detention and insufficient medical care.
Poudes the brutal prison regime
According to Nov Of these, many have been kept in complete isolation from the outside world for years and should not even write their families.
In November, photographs of the imprisoned opposition representative Marie Kalesnikova suddenly appeared on the Internet, whom there was nothing to hear about more than a year and a half. Pratasevič tried to refute rumors that he was starving and weighing only 45 kilograms.
It was Pratasevič that took her father into the punishment colony to visit his daughter. He allowed him to take a photo together, even shot a video on which her father said that Kalesnikava’s promised to consider the opportunity to ask Lukashenko for mercy. According to Nov
Prataševič in the video added that Kalesnikava’s “laughs a lot and smiles”, “looks good, reads a lot, paints and even exercises yoga”.
A little later, Prataševič went to another prison, this time to a meeting with Viktor Babaryk, a former presidential candidate who also disappeared in the Belarus Gulag in February 2023. The letter, everyone was clearly seen that Babary was in a good mood and did not remind the tortured prisoner at all.
What does Lukashenko follow by granting graces?
The longest serving President in Europe was trying to refute the image of the dictator and prisoner of critics before the next election. Last week, there were reports of a few grace he awarded. However, the exile opposition leader Štiaštlana Cichanovská claims that this is the usual game before the elections, when Lukashenko hopes that grace will win the concessions of the West. “It’s not a change in politics, it’s like testing democracy. ‘Look, I transmit 20 people, just enough? Are you ready to cancel the sanctions? Are you ready to recognize me? Not? OK, I’ll add 20 more, ”she said.
According to the opposition leader, there should be no negotiations with Lukashenko until he continues to detain prisoners – including her husband Siaraja – as well as other hostages.
I should have a minute of fame and what then?
The denouement was offered by Pratasovič himself, when in October 2024 he said he chose his life instead of a minute of fame. “All these thoughts that people should resist heroically, send everyone to hell, keep silent in questioning like a guerrilla – this idea is most actively promoted by people who were afraid to face even an administrative arrest for 15 days and escaped from the country,” he said.
He described what he imagined if he refused to work with the authorities: “I would get my minute of fame from the opposition media to say, ‘See what a hero is!’ I would be declared a political prisoner and a streets in a medium -sized European city would be named after me. What then? “He thought aloud.
Protasevič said he was planning to leave Belarus more than a year after his release from prison, but over time he began to doubt this strategy. “I had a few good offers (from abroad) and they are still there, but in the end I started to consider: What then? What is the next plan? All my life I have been a journalist, not a politician, “he said. Obviously he assumed that a political career in exile would be the only real option for him if he moved to the West.
Difficulties in finding a new job
The ProteSevič also indicated that after a traumatizing arrest and prison, he is simply tired of thinking about the fate of Belarus. “Another big question is whether I really want to return to it all, especially after I went through the epicenter itself, the meat grinder itself,” he explained.
Pratasevič said that after being released from prison he had long been looking for work in IT, but repeatedly refused “due to the risk of reputation damage”, including employers who actively addressed him for an interview.
“So I did a survey and realized that we would probably be welding now,” he said in an interview. “First, there is a great demand for him, and secondly, the salary is not bad, even when you start,” he revealed.
