The detention of Raman Pratasevich shows how far the Belarusian dictator-president will go to shut down protest
On Sunday, three secret service agents and a Belarusian fighter jet “hijacked” a Ryanair plane from Athens as it crossed Belarusian airspace, just minutes before it reached Lithuania. The target was an opposition journalist, Raman Pratasevich, who helps run the Telegram channel Nexta, the main voice of the Belarusian opposition, many of whom are now in exile in Lithuania and Poland. This seems to be Belarus’s equivalent of a Litvinenko or Navalny moment – a message to the opposition that no one is safe from the regime, whether at home or abroad.
From detention in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, Pratasevich was forced to make what looks like a hostage video, “admitting” to organising mass disturbances and appearing as if he had been badly beaten. Pratasevich, however, is just one of hundreds of political prisoners detained in Belarus since mass protests against a rigged election in August 2020. This extraordinary act of piracy is therefore three things: it is dictator-president Alexander Lukashenko’s attempt to completely shut down the ongoing protests against his 27-year rule (Pratasevich is 26); it is a dramatic internationalisation of what had been largely a domestic problem; and an open show of contempt for the ability of the Europe and the US to do anything about it.
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