Journalist Roman Protasevich
Let me start this post with a couple of huge thank yous. First to all y’all for being patient with us during our recent technical issues. Second to Rogue Unicorn for all of her hard work behind the scenes. Now on to the news. . .
I don’t know how many of you heard about the Belarus KGB forcing a RyanAir flight from Athens to Vilinus to land in Minsk on Sunday. The flight was diverted after BKGB agents onboard the flight declared there was a bomb on board.
The plane was intercepted by a MiG 29 fighter just two minutes before it would have left Belarusian airspace. The entire episode was contrived just to arrest a Belarusian expat journalist Roman Protasevich.
Protasevich covered the unrest following the elections last year for a Telegram channel, Nexta. He is accused of fomenting the protests following last years elections and has been classified as a terrorist by the Belarus government.
It is being reported that Belarusian strongman, Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered the operation.
The move is already producing repercussions for Belarus. The EU has closed its airspace to Belarus carriers and is considering other sanctions.