Negotiations with Trump as a background?
Lukashenko: Oppositionist was our spy
11/01/2025 – 3:03 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
In Belarus, a blogger celebrated as an opposition figure apparently worked for the secret service. The announcement is probably also aimed at Donald Trump.
According to ruler Alexander Lukashenko, blogger Roman Protassewitsch, who has long been recognized as a political persecutor by the Belarusian opposition, has been working as a spy for his country for years. “I won’t say much. Protassevich is an employee of our foreign intelligence service,” Lukashenko said at a public appearance shown by state media. He was not an opposition figure, but someone who collected information abroad – most recently in Greece.
The blogger and co-founder of the opposition Telegram channel “Nexta” has long been considered a symbol of resistance against Lukashenko. When a plane with him on board was forced to land in Minsk in 2021, his arrest made headlines around the world. Sanctions were imposed against Belarus. It was unclear whether Protassevich, as an alleged KGB agent, specifically collected information about the opposition in exile. “Nexta” described Lukashenko’s statements as “nonsense”.
Nevertheless, Protassevich, for whom his parents had campaigned in their exile in Poland and prominent Belarusian government opponents, confirmed Lukashenko’s statements to the opposition media “Serkalo” working abroad and the Russian state news agency Tass. “Yes, I can confirm this information, but at this point that is all I can say,” he said.
Protassevich was sentenced to eight years in a prison camp in May 2023, but was released the same month following a pardon from Lukashenko. After Protassewitsch’s arrest, opposition members expressed the suspicion that his personality could have been broken through torture in prison. State television once showed him in tears.
Lukashenko’s surprising statements could be related to the fact that Belarus is also negotiating an end to sanctions with the USA. The ruler recently released dozens of political prisoners.
In May 2021, the authorities in Belarus forced a Ryanair passenger plane en route from Athens to Vilnius with a fighter jet to make a stopover in Minsk. The landing was justified by a bomb threat. Since the plane is registered in Poland, the public prosecutor’s office in Warsaw began investigating the case.
The suspects were the former director of the Belarusian air traffic control authority, the head of the air traffic control center in Minsk and the head of the Belarusian secret service KGB. When they took control of the plane, they allegedly gave false information about an alleged explosive device on board and then forced the pilots to make an emergency landing, it was said. There were a total of 132 passengers on the plane.
