Romano Protasevičiaus interviu Baltarusijos televizijoje

Subscribe to our channel! rupt.ly/subscribe Mandatory credit: ONT TV CHANNEL Detained NEXTA cofounder Roman Protasevich spoke on camera to a Belorussian All-National TV channel on Thursday. Protasevich has been detained since May 23rd. Ruptly cannot independently identify when and where the statement given to the state-owned TV channel was recorded. Full script available at: https://ruptly.tv/videos/20210603-062 --- SOT, Roman Protasevich [P], opposition journalist (Russian): I have reevaluated a lot of things for myself. I never want to get involved in politics again. I hope that I can fix everything and live an ordinary calm life, have a family, children, stop running from something. Excuse me. SOT, P: Regarding what I know, a lot of information really was supplied, by ex-security officers as well. In fact, in some teams there were what is called the concise word "rats", who just easily betrayed their colleagues, former colleagues, and so on. Reporter [R]: Here were our colleagues coming through your hands, former state media reporters, who switched sides? Did they play that? Did they leak the information about us? P: As far as I remember it happened on Anton Motolko’s telegram channel, there was information about the STV employees [published.] Some call schedules or something like that. R: It was the information… P: But mostly… R: So you didn’t get in touch with it? P: I wasn’t involved in publishing personal information. SOT, P: Firstly, part of it was really just at the expense of the same Lithuanian taxpayers. That is, Lithuanian taxpayers in fact pay for a foreign politician. Partly, these are private sponsors some private businessmen, representatives of some kind of business elite, and so on. Here the other question is of course - what are their interests then. I think it would be interesting for me to answer this question myself. Thirdly, this is the support from the financial diaspora, which also takes part in the financing. That is, there are many sources of funding. SOT, P: I won't hide it, I have criticised Alexander Grigorievich [Lukashenko] a lot, obviously, since it seemed like there was a reason for it. I had been a journalist all my life and when I became more and more involved not in journalistic, but in political work, the more I wanted to escape and the more I began to understand that many things for which Alexander Grigorievich was criticized were in fact just an attempt to pressure and that in many moments he acted, pardon such an expression, like a man with balls of steel, despite all the pressure and so on. I won't hide the fact that, certainly, there were some moments, as I think, that some of the decisions may have been flawed. R: In a word, do you respect him? P: Сertainly. SOT, R: Aren't there intelligence services behind the headquarters? P: They are. Once again, it's just a matter of the fact that often even I was as one of those, the main fighters of the information warfare, often even I did not have access to any meetings, to the moments where some decisions were made, by whom and how they were made. R: So you were just given a summons? P: Yes. I mean, it is clear that there were many things - some plans, general strategies, and so on. This is clearly the work of specialists. But what, I beg your pardon, are the specialists in the Belarusian opposition? Only if they are specialists in money laundering. R: It was a great success. Especially in the case of [Andrei] Strizhak. SOT, P: All the Telegram channels, with the exception of NEXTA, they fully support Tikhanovskaya's activities. Again, all this ‘Infopoint’ network, she is also supported by grants. I can honestly say, I couldn't even publish any faint criticism of Tikhanovskaya on the same telegram channel ‘Belarusian Brain’ later. Even though I said that it might be a good idea to make some kind of a discussion platform for people to come and speak out. The same [journalist Franak] Viachorka told me, ‘No, there cannot be any criticism, not even the slightest one, on the channels.’ SOT, R: Have you seen [the recent Belarusian state TV]’s ‘Kill the President’ movie [about an alleged planned military coup in Belarus]? P: No, only some parts. R: I completely understand there are other types of movies supposed to be nominated for an Academy Award, but there’s Malevich’s black square, an obvious allusion to this is a constant black square at the Zoom-conference. You are smiling. Have you been there? P: Of course. R: Or Tikhanovskaya? P: No, it was me. That unsigned back square, in particular. R: A silent one. P: Yes, at the very first zoom-conference. I would like to describe it. It was just because I was supposed to be the contact between the Tikhanovskaya’s headquarters and the culprits. #Belarus #RomanProtasevich Video ID: 20210603-062 Video on Demand: https://ruptly.tv/videos/20210603-062 Contact: cd@ruptly.tv Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ruptly Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ruptly