Roman Protasevich turns the Belarus regime against him.
But who is the young blogger who is putting the ruler Alexander Lukashenko under such pressure?
A search for clues.
Munich / Minsk - The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko obviously wants to intimidate him: Roman Protasewitsch, blogger and critic of the government in Belarus.
The young man, born in 1995, is around 40 years younger than the autocratic head of government (born in 1954) in Minsk.
And yet it makes them feel insecure.
Very obviously.
Even as a teenager, his critical approaches on the Internet aroused the suspicion of the regime.
His texts were aimed directly against Alexander Lukashenko, who is under enormous pressure internationally because of his autocratic style of government and the allegedly systematic persecution of opposition members.
And then there is this activist and blogger who simply does not want to leave him alone: Protasevich, optionally also written Pratassewitsch or Protassewitsch.
Roman Protasewitsch: Feared and persecuted by Belarus ruler Alexander Lukashenko
At the age of 17, the young
journalist at the time ran
two groups critical of Lukashenko
in the Russian online network
Vkontakte
and was therefore arrested for several hours in Belarus and, according to his own statements, abused.
"They kicked my kidneys and liver," he reported at the time.
“I had blood in my urine for three days after that.
You threatened to put unresolved murders against me. "
Roman Protasevich
Born on May 5, 1995 in Minsk (Belarus).
His name is also spelled Pratassevtish or Protassevich.
Critic of the regime and opposition to the autocratic government of Alexander Lukashenko.
Blogger, co-founder and temporarily editor-in-chief of the
anti
-government online news service
Nexta.
Arrested and detained by Belarus in Minsk on May 23, 2021 on Ryanair flight 4978 from Athens to Vilnius, which was forced to make an emergency landing.
During the interrogations, the officers of the Belarusian secret service, which is still called the KGB as it was in Soviet times, asked for the passwords for the online groups.
One of these groups was called: "We are fed up with this Lukashenko".
He only knows this president - because Lukashenko has been in power in Belarus since 1994, a year before Protasevich was born.
The young oppositionist stayed in his homeland for the time being, worked as a photographer for Belarusian media and received a grant for aspiring independent journalists in 2017-2018.
In 2019 he went into exile in Poland and Lithuania shortly after starting work for the influential opposition Telegram channel
Nexta
.
There he was meanwhile also editor-in-chief.
Roman Protasewitsch: Fled from Belarus into exile in Poland for fear of Alexander Lukashenko
For
Nexta
, the 26-year-old reported on the presidential election last August, in which opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya challenged Lukashenko.
When the incumbent declared himself the winner after the polls overshadowed by allegations of fraud, there were unprecedented mass protests.
The
Nexta
channel
, which currently has more than 1.2 million readers, played an important role in this: it provided its subscribers with the dates and times of the protests.
Nexta
This is a widespread Russian-language telegram channel on the political situation in Belarus. The autocratic regime of the ruler Alexander Lukashenko is clearly criticized and addressed in the contributions. According to the
picture
, the Telegram service had
more than 2.1 million readers at
times
- and thus had a corresponding influence. Roman Protasewitsch co-founded the online news service and was at times its editor-in-chief.
He moved more and more into the focus of the autocratic regime: Lukashenko had an arrest warrant for Protasevich issued in November.
Through his work for
Nexta
, he was involved in a "terrorist activity," was the reason.
Protasewitsch, who is now the editor of the
BGM
channel
with 260,000 subscribers, jokingly describes himself on his Twitter profile as the “first terrorist journalist in history”.
But: Terrorist allegations can result in the death penalty in Belarus - and this is actually still being carried out in the Eastern European country.
Roman Protasewitsch: Alexander Lukashenko had regime critics arrested in the Ryanair incident
Until Pentecost 2021: In an internationally sensational campaign, Lukashenko ordered a Ryanair plane that was originally en route from Greece to Lithuania to be diverted by a fighter jet to Minsk.
On board: regime critic Roman Protasewitsch and his Russian friend Sofia Sapega.
Both were arrested after the forced landing in Minsk.
Heads of state such as Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) demanded that Lukashenko be released immediately, while the Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya even feared that Protasevtish would be tortured.
Uncertain outcome.
(pm)
