Category: Belarus
‘Heir of Nazis’: Belarus’ Lukashenko blasts German foreign minister over call for sanctions on eve of Hitler invasion anniversary
worker | June 23, 2021 | 8:37 pm | Belarus, Fascist terrorism, Germany | Comments closed

https://www.rt.com/russia/527343-belarus-germany-sanctions-nazi/

‘Heir of Nazis’: Belarus’ Lukashenko blasts German foreign minister over call for sanctions on eve of Hitler invasion anniversary

‘Heir of Nazis’: Belarus’ Lukashenko blasts German foreign minister over call for sanctions on eve of Hitler invasion anniversary
Amid a growing row with the EU over the grounding of a passenger jet carrying an opposition activist last month, Belarus’ bombastic leader has launched a new attack on Germany, comparing its sanctions policy to its role in WWII.

Speaking at an event being held to mark the 80th anniversary of the Third Reich’s invasion of the Soviet Union, veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko raged about the West’s response to the incident. Between a quarter and a third of Belarusians are estimated to have died during WWII, the worst proportionate death toll of any country.

Lukashenko, who has faced long-running protests after declaring victory in last year’s disputed presidential election, claimed that sanctions imposed since were part of the West’s “hybrid war” against the nation.

“We did not expect Germany’s participation in this collective conspiracy,” he said. “From those whose ancestors destroyed not only every third Belarusian, but also millions of unborn children in the Great Patriotic War.” He argued that Germany’s foreign policy should be dictated by remorse for WWII, rather than seeking confrontation.

ALSO ON RT.COM‘Bomb scare’ forces Ryanair jet to make emergency landing in Belarus, authorities detain wanted editor of banned Telegram channelFocusing his ire on Berlin’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, who this week called for additional economic sanctions to be imposed, Lukashenko asked “Who are you? A repentant German … or the heir of the Nazis?”

Belarus was rocked by demonstrations in the wake of last August’s election, which the opposition and many international observers say was rigged. Tens of thousands took to the streets to demand a fresh vote, but they were met with a police crackdown, tear gas, and mass arrests.

Last month, a Ryanair plane flying between Athens and Vilnius was instructed to land in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Once on the ground, authorities arrested the editor of an opposition Telegram channel banned in the country, Roman Protasevich, and his Russian-citizen girlfriend, activist Sophia Sapega.

Western governments have blasted the move as “state-sponsored piracy,” and the EU has since begun barring Belarus’ national carrier, Belavia, from its airspace. A number of Western carriers now also use routes that circumnavigate the Eastern European country, while Brussels is reportedly mulling further sanctions.

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Unrecognized Donbass republic claims ‘irrefutable evidence’ that Belarusian activist Protasevich fought for neo-Nazi battalion
worker | June 21, 2021 | 8:01 pm | Belarus, Fascist terrorism | Comments closed

https://www.rt.com/russia/526866-protasevich-nazi-battalion-evidence/

Unrecognized Donbass republic claims ‘irrefutable evidence’ that Belarusian activist Protasevich fought for neo-Nazi battalion

Unrecognized Donbass republic claims ‘irrefutable evidence’ that Belarusian activist Protasevich fought for neo-Nazi battalion
Prosecutors in the self-proclaimed Lugansk Republic (LNR) have accused Roman Protasevich, the activist who was arrested when his plane was forced to land in Minsk last month, of being part of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.

The LNR is an unrecognized state located in Ukraine, and has existed since the 2014 war in Donbass, when separatists unilaterally declared independence from Kiev. Founded in 2014, the Azov Battalion is an ultra-right military unit now incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine, and is loyal to Kiev.

On Wednesday, LNR Prosecutor General Sergey Gorenko claimed that he had obtained evidence that Protasevich had taken part in the Donbass war on the side of Ukraine, fighting for the neo-Nazi militia.

Azov fought during the height of the Donbass war, first seeing action at the Battle of Mariupol. The group is heavily linked to neo-Nazi ideology, with the regiment’s logo featuring the Wolfsangel, a symbol of many divisions of the Nazi German Army during World War II. Joining the Azov Battalion is illegal in Donbass, as well as in Belarus.

ALSO ON RT.COMBelarusian opposition decry state TV interview with ‘hostage’ Protasevich as jailed activist voices fear of extradition to Donbass“Republican law enforcement managed to obtain sufficient irrefutable evidence of the involvement of the figure in the activities of the nationalist pro-Ukrainian ‘Azov’ group, which is banned in the LNR,” the prosecutor general said in a statement.

As reported earlier this month, LNR officials have already requested his extradition.

Protasevich, the editor of the opposition-aligned Belamova Telegram channel, classed by officials in Belarus as an ‘extremist organization’, was arrested in May after his Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced by Minsk to land in the Belarusian capital due to a supposed bomb threat. However, Swiss provider Proton Mail later claimed that the warning was sent via email after the plane had already diverted, contradicting Belarusian authorities.

ALSO ON RT.COMRyanair plane may have landed in Minsk due to fake bomb threat by angry opposition colleague, says Belarusian activist ProtasevichShortly after his arrest, so-called evidence was later produced about Protasevich’s service in Donbass. The activist has previously admitted to spending time in the area as a journalist, even noting that he was once shot. However, he denies joining the battalion as a soldier.

This was later backed up by former Azov commander Andrey Biletsky.

“He was with us near Shirokino, where he was injured,” he explained“But his weapon, as a journalist, was not a machine gun, but words.”

Later, however, an old interview of his father was discovered, in which he revealed that Protasevich “fought” in Donbass. Photos later emerged of someone who looks like Protasevich holding a gun and wearing a uniform.

There is also no record of him producing any journalism while he was in the region and attached to the battalion.

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Western enemies of Belarus are using country as ‘testing ground’ before an attack on Russia, says embattled President Lukashenko
worker | May 27, 2021 | 7:59 pm | Belarus, Russia | Comments closed

https://www.rt.com/russia/524877-western-enemies-belarus-testing-ground/

Western enemies of Belarus are using country as ‘testing ground’ before an attack on Russia, says embattled President Lukashenko

Western enemies of Belarus are using country as ‘testing ground’ before an attack on Russia, says embattled President Lukashenko
Countries unfriendly to Belarus have moved on from organizing riots and are now onto the stage of “strangulation,” a tactic they will later use in Russia. That’s according to the country’s president Alexander Lukashenko.

Speaking to politicians, Lukashenko explained his view that protests have been deemed to have failed in Belarus, so foreign backers of the opposition are changing tack.

“That’s why they’ve gone from organizing riots to the strangulation stage,” he said. “They are searching for new vulnerabilities, and it is not only aimed at us: we are a testing ground, a place for to experiment before they rush to East [Russia].”

ALSO ON RT.COMUS & NATO allies harming potential Donbass peace by giving more money, weapons and support to Ukrainian army, says Russian FMIll-wishers from both outside and inside the country have changed their methods of attack on the state, Lukashenko said, explaining that they have “crossed many red lines” and “crossed the line of common sense and human morality.”

Last August, Belarus burst into waves of demonstrations and mass unrest following the Presidential Election. According to official results, Lukashenko earned 80% of the vote and won a sixth term in power. However, the country’s opposition believes the election to be falsified, with some saying opposition figurehead Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was the true victor. In the months following the vote, her supporters took to the streets across the country to protest.

According to the president, Belarusian authorities took tough measures during the demonstrations, and as a result they were able to “nip the wave of neo-Nazism in the bud.”

“Our actions may have seemed excessive to those who justify their atrocities. But this strategy is vital for the country,” he said.

In recent days, new measures have been taken against Minsk, following Sunday’s emergency grounding of a Ryanair plane from Greece, due to a supposed bomb threat. Once it landed at Minsk airport, police came onto the aircraft and arrested activist Roman Protasevich, a passenger on the flight. Later, when no bomb was found, the plane left Belarus to its final destination of Lithuania.

In response to what many called “piracy,” many European countries have stopped accepting Belarusian planes into their airspace.

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Flying High for Foreign Powers?
worker | May 26, 2021 | 9:04 pm | Belarus | Comments closed

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/202105251082992744-flying-high-for-foreign-powers/

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The blogger Roman Protasevich snatched out of the air by Belarus authorities seems to have heavy-hitting Western friends. The US president and European leaders have condemned his arrest and are demanding his release.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, has denounced Belarus for ordering the landing of an airliner in Minsk and taking Protasevich into custody.

“We will put pressure on the regime until it finally respects the freedom of media, the freedom of the press, and the freedom of opinion,” declared Von der Leyen as the European Union imposed a new round of sanctions on Belarus.

US President Joe Biden said the incident was “a direct affront to international norms”. His Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was a “shocking” violation of aviation rules and the rights of journalists.

Aside from the hypocrisy here (recall the US ordered several EU countries to force the landing of Bolivian President Evo Morales’ plane in 2013), there are other nuances.

Protasevich may be a blogger and journalist in name. But he was wanted by the Belarus government for allegedly inciting sedition through a media channel he set up from exile in Poland. Requests from Belarus for his extradition were ignored. It is arguable therefore that the Belarus authorities had legal right to ground the plane he was aboard as it transited the nation’s sovereign airspace en route from Greece to Lithuania at the weekend.

 

The 26-year-old Protasevich has had a checkered and dubiously awarded career. As a graduate student of journalism in Belarus, he was made a Vaclav Havel Fellow in 2017-18, awarded by the US government-funded propaganda service, Radio Free Europe. RFE has a long history of being a CIA front which goes back to the Cold War against the Soviet Union.

He went into exile in 2019 working from Poland on creating opposition media campaigns against the Belarus government. Then in 2020, Protasevich was awarded the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

It seems plausible that the young Belarusian activist, like several others among his peers, was groomed to perform as a conduit for foreign powers to interfere in and destabilize Belarus. Long-time President Alexander Lukashenko is a target for Western regime change owing to his country’s close relations with neighboring Russia.

When Lukashenko won re-election in August 2020, the West decried a rigged ballot, and street protests kicked in. The Western-supported opposition media channels run by Protasevich and other exiled Belarusians were instrumental in fomenting the anti-government demonstrations.

Belarusian opposition supporters rally in the center of Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020.  A vast demonstration with many thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of Belarus' authoritarian president are rallying in the capital, continuing the public dissent since the disputed presidential election.
© AP PHOTO
Belarusian opposition supporters rally in the center of Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020. A vast demonstration with many thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of Belarus’ authoritarian president are rallying in the capital, continuing the public dissent since the disputed presidential election.

Lukashenko’s government has been accused of using heavy-handed repression and mass arrests.

However, Belarus seems to have legitimate concerns that it was being targeted for a color-style revolution. That is, for illegal regime change by Western powers.

It does seem suspicious that Western media coverage of Protasevich’s arrest went promptly ballistic with condemnations. Radio Free Europe, his alma mater, devoted several articles to the story.

 

There are also more sinister aspects to Protasevich’s busy career. According to Ukrainian and Russian media reports, he was seconded on communications work in Ukraine’s civil war where he was befriended by far-right leaders of the Maidan movement, the CIA-backed group which carried out the coup d’état in Kiev in 2014. Protasevich reportedly did communications for the Azov Battalion, the notorious Neo-Nazi militant group which has terrorized the ethnic Russian population in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine.

It is not clear at this stage if Belarus violated international aviation rules when it ordered the airliner to make a detour landing in Minsk whereupon Protasevich was apprehended. The so-called Chicago Convention affords countries sovereignty over their national airspaces.

In any case, American and European states have set huge precedents for such an irregular intervention from their past “hijacking” of the Bolivian president’s private jet, as well as from countless cases of “extraordinary rendition” flights by the Americans with European complicity in secret transport of “terror suspects”.

But what seems clear is that the case of Protasevich is not simply that of an innocent opposition journalist, as the West is sanctimoniously making out. He and his alumni of Radio Free Europe have a case to answer over allegations of working for foreign powers to destabilize their native country.

The views and opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

 

Belarusian President Lukashenko Accuses Nation’s Ill-Wishers of Strangling Country
worker | May 26, 2021 | 9:02 pm | Belarus | Comments closed

https://sputniknews.com/europe/202105261082998709-belarusian-president-lukashenko-accuses-nations-ill-wishers-of-strangling-country/

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MINSK (Sputnik) – Those who wish Belarus ill, both outside and inside the country, have gone from organising riots to “strangling” the nation, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Wednesday.

“The ill-wishers of Belarus have proceeded from organising riots to the strangling stage”, Lukashenko told Belarusian lawmakers, the Constitutional Commission, and state administrative bodies, as quoted by the state-run news agency Belta.

 

According to Lukashenko, those who wish the country ill, both outside and inside Belarus “have changed their methods of attacks against the state”. 

“They’ve crossed many red lines, they crossed the boundaries of common sense and human morality”, the president concluded.

Lukashenko Slams West for Refusing to Investigate Ryanair Incident

Lukashenko also said on Wednesday that the West refuses to investigate the Ryanair emergency landing in Minsk, Belarus’ TV News Agency, part of the Belteleradiocompany state media holding, reported.

“I acted legitimately, I was protecting people, I acted in line with all the international rules. The plane was reversed close to the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant. What if the NPP safety systems were put on full alert?”, Lukashenko went on to say.

Ryanair Bomb Threat Came From Switzerland, Reports Suggest

The message about the threat of an explosion aboard the Ryanair plane, which was forced to make an emergency landing in Minsk, came from Switzerland, Belarus’ TV News Agency reported.

On 24 May, the director of the Belarusian Transport Ministry’s aviation department said the bomb threat came from Hamas.

However, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum on Monday denied the group’s involvement in the Ryanair incident, saying the organisation does not resort to such methods.

 

On 23 May, a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius was forced into an emergency landing in Minsk following a bomb threat, which later turned out to be false. Opposition blogger Roman Protasevich, who was among the passengers, was detained during the stopover in the Belarusian capital. The founder of the Telegram channel “Nexta”, which is considered extremist by the Belarusian authorities, now faces up to 15 years in prison. 

The incident with the Ryanair flight has triggered a wave of criticism from European leaders, who accused the Belarusian authorities of meddling with the European Union’s civil aviation and threatened to close Belarusian airspace for international flights. Yet, this is not the first time a plane has been grounded at the request of a third country’s authorities. In 2013, the plane of Bolivia’s then-President Evo Morales was directed by Austria to make an emergency landing at the behest of the United States, during the hunt for the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The whistleblower was not on board.