Employees of the headquarters of the leader of the Belarusian opposition Svetlana Tikhanovskaya were involved in sending a false message about the bombing of a Ryanair plane. This was stated by the former editor-in-chief of the Belarusian opposition Telegram channel Nexta Roman Protasevich, who was detained by the security forces after landing. His video message published on YouTube.
Protasevich spent a month in jail. He was released from custody after he admitted his guilt on state TV, repented of his ties with the opposition and promised “not to get involved in politics.”
According to him, the incident with the landing of the plane and the arrest was “inspired” by members of Tikhanovskaya’s headquarters to intensify protests and impose sanctions on the Belarusian authorities. According to him, the opposition was looking for ways to put pressure on the official Minsk, including using “information attacks”. “Cyber partisans” – Belarusian hackers – were engaged in sending false reports about mining in state buildings and hacking into government resources, the former editor-in-chief of Nexta continued.
Protasevich said that only five or six people from Tikhanovskaya’s headquarters knew about his visit to the Delphic Forum in Greece, since he stayed there for about an hour. However, the letter about the bombing of the plane spoke about the participation of a blogger in it.
“The main persons involved in sending a message about false mining are <...> [советник Тихановской] Frantisek Vyachorka, [сотрудник Nexta] Jan Rudik, [оппозиционер] Daniil Bogdanovich, as well as unknown to me representatives of hacker groups called “Kaberpartisans,” said Protasevich.