Protasevich, the imprisoned dissident forced to praise Lukashenko's "steel eggs" on television

The Belarusian dissident journalist Roman Protasevich has once again been placed before the cameras to speak in favor of the Alexander Lukashenko regime, which has held him prisoner since last month. In an interrogation broadcast on state television, he said that it makes no sense for the opposition to call street protests and has even praised the Belarusian dictator against whom he has been fighting for years as “a man with eggs of steel.”

Protasevich, who lived in exile before his arrest, was even made to “confirm” the preparations for an alleged attack on Lukashenko. With some marks on his face and arms, he warned of the existence of “sleeper” radical cells in Belarus.

In the last ten days, Protasevich has made several incriminating statements, some videos that his parents and co-religionists consider “staged” by the Belarusian KGB to incriminate him and the opposition in exile.. His father, Dimitri Protasevich, told the press that these recordings are “propaganda videos” in favor of the President of Belarus.. The journalist's parents, the opposition and the UN have also denounced that Protasevich could have been a victim of torture in prison.

This is the last “confession” of the dissident journalist since the Ryanair plane in which he was traveling from Athens to Vilnius made an emergency landing in Minsk on May 23 due to an alleged bomb warning that turned out to be fabricated.. According to the testimony of some passengers, Protasevich was terrified when he landed unexpectedly in Minsk and shouted that he was exposing himself “to the death penalty.”

Between a rock and a hard place, the journalist has completely changed the tone and the message to an unlikely extreme. “Many of the things we criticize Lukashenko for are actually just attempts to put pressure on him.. In many situations he acted like a man with balls of steel.”

During the forced layover of the plane in Minsk, the authorities detained not only Protasevich. His girlfriend, the Russian Sofía Sapega, who soon appeared in another video reciting her running confession, was also arrested.

This time Protasevich blamed himself for the full menu proposed by the authorities. “I openly admit that I was one of the people who published calls to take to the streets on the 9th [August]. Once I was presented with the documents, the charges (…) I immediately pleaded guilty to the offenses under Article 342 [organization of acts flagrantly violating public order]” of the Criminal Code of Belarus, Protasevich said in an interview with the Belarusian network ONT. Protasevich said he voluntarily appeared at the television studio.

The 26-year-old dissident looked very uncomfortable in the video. At the end of the interview -of an hour and a half, broadcast Thursday night by the state channel ONT- Protasevich burst into tears and covered his face with his hands, before saying that he would like, in the future, to be able to get married and have children. The journalist's father assures that the video was the result of “abuse, torture and threats”. “I know my son very well and I think he would never say those things,” he told AFP.. “They broke him down and forced him to say what they needed to say,” the father added.

The detained journalist is co-founder and editor of the opposition channel Nexta, which promoted the anti-government protests by broadcasting live and reporting on their calls. According to sources in the Greek security services, Protasevich was followed by Russian or Belarusian intelligence agents during his stay in the country.. This information specifies that the agents followed him in Athens (where he participated in an international conference along with other opponents) during the four days he spent in Crete and at the airport before taking the flight to Vilnius.

The detainee also commented on Lugansk's accusations that he had participated in the conflict in Donbas on kyiv's side, fighting against pro-Russian separatists promoted by Moscow.. According to Protasevich, he did belong to the Azov paramilitary group in 2014, but he has never participated in combat.

The Russian public media have taken advantage of Lukashevich's 'confession' to spread the quotes as headlines. Moscow is Lukashenko's main support in a scenario of growing international isolation.

The EU closes its airspace to Belarus

The European Union, the United States and other countries last month condemned the diversion of the plane and demanded that Belarus release the detainees.. The EU Council decided on Friday to ban Belarusian airlines from flying over its airspace and accessing European airports. In a statement, the Council informed that EU member states are obliged to refuse permission to land, take off or overfly their territories to any aircraft operated by Belarusian airlines, including cargo companies.

Friday’s decision, according to the statement, follows up on the European Council conclusions of May 24-25, 2021, in which EU heads of state and government strongly condemned the illegal crash landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk on May 23, 2021, endangering aviation safety.