“Reported On Further Coup Attempts.” Tertel Finally Acknowledges Pratasevich As His Own

The head of the Belarusian KGB, Ivan Tertel, has finally commented on Raman Pratasevich, whom Alyaksandr Lukashenka unexpectedly described as an intelligence officer at the end of October. It turns out that Raman Pratasevich “worked on the territory of a number of states in a combat environment”.

The statement was made today after a report to Lukashenka.

“This issue was very seriously discussed on the agenda even by our foreign colleagues in the West and by our allies. I confirm: yes, Pratasevich is an officer of our foreign intelligence service. This person worked on the territory of a number of states in a combat environment. He carried out important tasks. Of course, I cannot talk about them. Probably to the end — as happens in our profession — this will not be disclosed. But his contribution was quite significant in a number of aspects,” the KGB chief said, and immediately went on to describe the assignments that Pratasevich allegedly carried out.

According to Tertel, in 2020 Pratasevich reported on “further attempts at a coup” and “the enemy’s plans”. Belarusian state propaganda uses this wording to describe the mass peaceful protests against the falsification of the presidential election.

“Including who would go where, coordinate movements, where they planned to do what and other aspects; who was engaged in this planning, who acted as scouts here across various locations, planned these actions involving clashes with police officers, and causing damage to certain economic facilities,” Tertel explained.

It should be noted that at the time Pratasevich was working in the editorial office of the Telegram channel NEXTA. The routes of protest columns were published on the channel in open access.

“There was a serious proportion of information in this data that was obtained by Pratasevich. That is why our law enforcement agencies acted quite confidently during that period and knew how the situation would develop,” Ivan Tertel said. “In addition, entirely thanks to his work we had a grasp of the dynamics of the creation of these subversive centres: who stood behind them, who financed them, who — for example, the former prime minister of Poland — came there, what money he promised, from which fund, how many positions were allocated to the Warsaw office, which certain ‘cultural figures’ are now unsuccessfully trying to develop there. This was his work.”

Nothing listed by Tertel was secret, and the information had been published by Belarusian media. For example, Reform.news reported on the meeting between Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the editorial team of Nexta_TV.

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At the end of October, Alyaksandr Lukashenka recalled Raman Pratasevich in connection with sanctions imposed after the forced landing in Minsk of a Ryanair aircraft with Pratasevich on board. Attempting to explain his non-involvement in an act of terrorism, Lukashenka unexpectedly stated that Pratasevich was allegedly an intelligence officer and that there had therefore been no point in forcing the plane to land. From his confused explanation, it never became clear why the Belarusian authorities seized the aircraft.

Belarusian security agencies had not commented in any way on Lukashenka’s unexpected “revelations” until now.