May 23, 2021. The Belarusian KGB, Alexander Lukashenko’s main special service, forces Ryanair flight 4978, flying from Athens to Vilnius, to land in Minsk by threatening its pilots. The KGB wanted one of the plane’s passenger, journalist Roman Protasevich, a former editor of the NEXTA telegram-channel, which had covered sympathetically the 2020 anti-Lukashenko protests. Protasevich was arrested by the KGB shortly after landing.
April 3, 2026. The main pro-Lukashenko YouTube channels were deleted for repeatedly breaking the rules of the video platform and, more specifically, because on all three of them, host Roman Protasevich had broadcast on April the 2nd the personal data of Belarusian investigative center journalists.
There’s no name coincidence in there. It was the same Roman Protasevich, who had moved from being one of the key government critics to a prime-time Lukashenko propagandist. How did that happen?
“I don't believe a single word you say”
Protasevich’s first media appearance following his May 23 arrest was less than two weeks later, on June the 3rd. He was featured on the “Markov. Nothing private” show* on the state propaganda TV channel ONT, where he spoke about his working for NEXTA, and the 2020 protests. During the interview he heavily criticized some of his former colleagues as well as notable members of the Belarusian democratic forces.
On June 14, 2021, a special press-conference was held in Minsk. At that moment some independent media were still working in Belarus, and their representatives together with foreign diplomats came to the event to support Roman. He claimed that he was OK and that he hadn’t been tortured, but many of those that were in the room thought that he was being forced to lie. “I can imagine what they could have done to you. And I don't believe a single word you say. Just hang in there, just get through this”, BelaPAN journalist Tatsiana Karaviankova told Roman. Karaviankova wasn’t alone: many Belarusians thought that Protasevich had been tortured before being publicly humiliated.
However, as time passed, this perception started to change. Soon after the press-conference it became known that Roman was transferred to house arrest, which was an unprecedented step for the regime. He allegedly signed a letter of cooperation with the investigators and after that, in August 2021, he started his career as a blogger. From time to time he would also be featured by the regime propaganda media, criticizing his former friends and colleagues from Belarusian independent media and democratic movement as a whole. The first post of his Telegram channel was dedicated to promoting the acceptance of guilt by the political prisoners in order to ask the regime for pardon and release. It should be noted that, according to the Belarusian legislation, under house arrest any public activity in social networks is strictly forbidden.
“Real activities, not relations”
Protasevich was arrested together with his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, who worked for the Black Book of Belarus, an ongoing project aimed at recording the crimes of the Lukashenko regime officials and servicemen against the people of Belarus. In May 2022, Sofia Sapega was sentenced to 6 years in prison, but in June 2023 she was released from prison and relocated to Thailand. Despite having spent a big part of her life in Belarus, Sapega is a Russian citizen, born in Vladivostok. According to her father, Andrei Sapega, his friend Zhan Kuznetsov, the Minister of Sports of Primorsky Region of Russia, who is Sophia’s godfather, played a key role in her release. Kuznetsov contacted the governor of the region, who in turn personally spoke to Lukashenko. After her release Sapega completely disappeared from the public eye.
Ironically, also in May 2022 Protasevich reported that he got married, but to some other girl. Writing about the trial of Sapega in the Telegram-channel mentioned above, he stated that “Sofia was sentenced for her real activities, not for relations” with him.
By the time the court had to decide about his future a year later, Protasevich was already known for disseminating the regime's propaganda narratives, especially those concerning political prisoners. By that time he had fully acknowledged his guilt in court. Here is a part of it: “First they used me in Vilnius, then in Warsaw, and then I was simply thrown out, handed over to the Belarusian authorities. I apologize for my actions, because I tried to achieve change through a real split in society and hatred, which was a big mistake. I sincerely apologize for my actions and hope for mercy, I want to compensate for the damage I caused by my actions. I understand that punishment for the things I did cannot be avoided. But, nevertheless, I ask you to consider my situation with understanding and make a correct and fair decision on punishment, which will not be associated with imprisonment”. As a result, he got sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Simple welder’s life
However, Protasevich never started serving this term. Soon he announced that he was pardoned and that he was studying to become an electric welder in order to begin “a normal life”. Although the prison term for him was cancelled, Roman wrote on Telegram that he was upset that the fine of around 7.5 million USD wasn’t. By September 2024 he reported that the fine was cancelled as well and he only had to pay about 300 USD. After that he was able to travel to Dubai, where he spent vacations, posting pictures and writing about how good a Belarusian worker’s life is.
In October 2024, Protasevich granted a big interview to Kseniya Sobchak – an influencer who had previously claimed that she opposed Putin and had even ran in the 2018 presidential elections. However, following the elections Sobchak dropped her criticism of Putin. The interview with Protasevich aldo featured footage with Roman working as an electric welder at the Kazlou Minsk Electrotechnical Plant. However, the video footage as well as Roman’s rhetoric weren’t too convincing: most viewers expressed doubt in the former media manager’s abilities to weld, as he wasn’t even able to describe what he was doing during his working hours.
Without cover and logic
Since 2024, Protasevich was also used to negotiate with the most important political prisoners – it is known that he had several conversations with Viktar Babaryka, Siarhiej Cichanouski and Maria Kalesnikava in prison, while they were kept in incommunicado regime for more than a year previously and nobody basically knew precisely what was happening to them. But a simple welder and blogger was let into prisons to communicate and take pictures with the most important hostages of the Lukashenko regime. Not everyone agreed to meet Protasevich: another political prisoner – journalist Andrzej Poczobut (who was released in the exchange on April 28, 2026) – told him to “f#ck off”, as propaganda channels reported afterwards.
On October 31, 2025 Lukashenko suddenly stated that Roman had been working for the regime for a long time: “Protasevich is an agent of our intelligence. Should we have detained him? But the question is, why were they (the Ryanair airplane – ed.) flying to Vilnius, didn’t land there, but turned around and flew to Minsk. They landed after a call that they had some kind of explosives on board…”
In December 2025 Protasevich debuted as a presenter in state propaganda – he got his personal show called “Without cover” on the most odious channel, STV. The whole show in its style is a clear allusion to Lukashenko’s words mentioned above. It is mainly dedicated to criticising everything opposing the Lukashenko regime – from independent media to foreign diplomats and politicians.
It was an episode of this show, the one broadcast on April 2, 2026, that determined YouTube to delete the three biggest channels of Lukashenko regime propaganda, after Protasevich attacked the Belarusian investigative centre and his head Stanislau Ivaškievich. Protasevich even published Ivaškievich’s address in Warsaw and footage taken in the vicinity of his home.
At this stage, Protasevich had become the butt of jokes of Belarusian internet users, who claim that he is systematically and successfully harming the regime. First, when he was arrested, the airplane he was travelling in was forced to land, and that brought hardcore sanctions from the Western states (basically the airspace and the air communication with Belarus has since been closed for Western companies, while Belarusian air operator Belavia has been banned from Europe). Now – Pratasevich basically brought down the regime propaganda channels. .
Note: * Host Marat Markov, a former military officer, would later be appointed Minister of Information, and then, in May 2026, minister of Culture.
