DISINFO: Western media want to sanctify Raman Pratasevich, omitting his connections with neo-Nazis in Ukraine

This disinformation message mentions some alleged connections of the Belarusian journalist and activist Raman Pratasevich with neo-Nazis in Ukraine in order to discredit him. In reality, this is not the case.

The claim is part of an emerging pro-Kremlin smear campaign against Pratasevich, who was arrested at the Minsk airport after the forced landing of the Ryanair flight 4978 on which he was travelling from Athens to Vilnius, stating that Pratasevich fought with the so-called Azov Battalion in Donbas, whose far-right allegiance is well known.

There is no substantial evidence to suggest that Mr. Pratasevich ever participated in the military activity of the Azov paramilitary battalion. Pratasevich himself said in an interview with a Russian journalist in 2020 that he had been in the war zone in Eastern Ukraine as a freelance journalist. This was further confirmed by Andriy Biletskyy, former commander of Azov. He said Pratasevich had been present in the Donbas warzone, but his activity there was limited to covering the course of the conflict as a journalist.

After images of Pratasevich with a military uniform emerged in pro-Kremlin channels, the representative of the Azov battalion, Vladislav Sobolevsky, said to Current time TV that it was provided to Pratasevich and to other foreign reporters, for example, to the Lithuanian Delfi's journalists, to ensure their security. Sobolevsky denied that Pratasevich ever participated in military activity. See further investigation by Russian independent outlet Meduza.

Pratasevich was also in Maidan. He said that he did not throw stones or take part in clashes, but he was hit by the then riot police (the Berkut).

Pratasevich became a target of the Belarusian regime due to his role as a co-founder of the opposition Nexta channel on Telegram, which played an important role in providing information and broadcasting huge opposition protests against electoral fraud perpetrated by Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in 2020. Pratasevich fled Belarus for Poland in 2019 due to pressure from the authorities. He later relocated to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is also based due to Belarus government pressure against her.

After Belarusian authorities orchestrated the forced landing in Minsk of the Ryanair flight 4978, the EU condemned this action against a civil plane and the detention of Pratasevich. In a declaration on behalf of the EU on 23 May 2021, the High Representative called for the immediate release of Mr. Pratasevich. This was followed by a European Council statement, in which the EU leaders called for targeted individual and economic sanctions as well as to ban overflight of EU airspace by Belarusian airlines and prevent access to EU airports of flights operated by these. On 4 June 2021, the European Council introduced a ban on the overflight of EU airspace and on access to EU airports by Belarusian carriers of all kinds.

See other examples of the pro-Kremlin smear campaign against Raman Pratasevich in our database, such as claims that he fought alongside neo-Nazis in the Donbas war and was responsible for the foreign funding of the Azov Battalion, that he is suspected of genocide and terror, that he is a mercenary, or that he is a well-known extremist controlled by the West.

This disinformation message appeared in the same programme as the claim that “The West protested the arrest of Pratasevich, but the incident is similar to the one with Evo Morales”.