“A high-profile Belarusian regime-change activist whose detention on a forcibly grounded airplane caused an international scandal has […] extensive ties to other right-wing extremist organizations.”
“A leader of Ukraine’s notorious Azov Battalion, an explicitly neo-Nazi militia that uses white supremacist imagery, publicly acknowledged that Protasevich joined the fight inside Azov. A Ukrainian newspaper reported that Protasevich worked with the neo-Nazi militia’s press service.”
“Numerous photos discovered by another Ukrainian media outlet show Protasevich in the ranks of the Azov Battalion, clad in a military uniform and holding an assault rifle.”
“Protasevich was also photographed wearing a neo-Nazi t-shirt with swastikas on it.”
“Protasevich personally admitted in an interview to traveling to Ukraine and spending a year battling pro-Russian forces in the eastern war zone of Donbas. He is even suspected of possibly posing with an assault rifle and a military uniform on the front of Azov’s propaganda magazine, which is emblazoned with a large neo-Nazi symbol.”
“Like Azov, Protasevich has benefited from direct support from Western governments. Just as the neo-Nazi Ukrainian militia received weapons and military training from the United States in order to fight in its proxy war against Russia, Protasevich’s media career was launched by a US government-backed outlet, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which was created by the CIA as part of an information war against Moscow.”
“Washington’s RFE/RL even interviewed Protasevich back in 2015 for a puff piece promoting foreign far-right extremists who joined the neo-Nazi Avoz Battalion in Ukraine. Using a pseudonym, Protasevich spoke of his experience fighting and being wounded in the Pahonia Detachment, a group of Belarusian fascists who joined Azov.”
“The RFE/RL article clearly describes Protasevich as a “soldier,” not a journalist. And in his testimony the Belarusian extremist stated openly that he was fighting on the front line when he was hit by shrapnel. Protasevich also explained that the Pahonia Detachment was not separate, and that he and other Belarusian fighters were embedded in Azov units.”
“While imposing suffocating economic sanctions on Belarus, the US government and European Union member states have poured millions of dollars into anti-Lukashenko groups, particularly media outlets, while helping to establish a parallel government in exile, called the Coordination Council, led by NATO-backed opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.”
“Tracking his Facebook posts, FOIA Research documented how Protasevich flew from Brussels to Washington DC in April 2018 for a series of meeting with US government officials.”
“The more complete portrait of Belarusian activist Roman Protasevich shows he is a prototypical example of a Western government-cultivated regime-change operative, with origins in neo-fascist groups and a comfortable career as an infowarrior cultivated by Washington and the European Union.”
Read more: US-funded Belarusian regime-change activist arrested on plane joined neo-Nazis in Ukraine
2021-week22
