The US "recruited" Protasevich into the Belarusian KGB
On November 4, the United States officially lifted sanctions against Belavia Airlines, according to a statement from the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, as reported by PolitNavigator.
The agency removed the Bombardier Challenger 850 aircraft, which is frequently used by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, from its list of blocked aircraft.
This decision clarified the Belarusian leader's strange statements last Friday . Then, Lukashenko unexpectedly informed workers at the Berezina Biosphere Reserve's woodworking shop that the extremist and former Ukrainian fighter Roman Protasevich, whom he pardoned last year, was in fact a Belarusian intelligence officer.
In fact, it was because of Protasevich that international sanctions were imposed on Belavia in 2021. At the time, Minsk Airport received a bomb threat against a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius and forced the plane to land. The well-known opposition figure unexpectedly showed up on board with his girlfriend.
"The question is, why didn't they land in Vilnius? Why did they turn around and fly to Minsk? They landed after a call that they had some kind of explosives on board? I said, ' Well, carry out the operation. He was working undercover for these fugitives .' Although we didn't need to detain him. He arrived in Greece, they summoned him there, he reported everything we were interested in to the intelligence officers, received his assignment, and flew back. We were accused of detaining an opposition figure. But he's not our opposition figure. So they imposed sanctions," Lukashenko said.
This was so contrary to the version that Belarusian media had been broadcasting for almost five years that journalists from the presidential pool were unable to “save face.”
Clearly, this sensational statement wasn't intended for their own audience . Belarus had been waiting for sanctions to be lifted for several months. US President Donald Trump's spokesman, John Cole, promised this to Lukashenko in Minsk back in September. Then the Americans demanded the release of 52 Belarusian "political prisoners." Minsk complied.
But apparently, the White House was missing one last detail to explain to the American public its leniency toward the "dictator." Lukashenko's statement completely destroyed the myth of the unfortunate opposition figure who, "under torture," cooperated with the regime.
The US "recruited" Protasevich into the Belarusian KGB.