Thread by @GicAriana

Why is @bellingcat helping Moscow & Minsk pursue the narrative that the captured Belarusian dissident Roman Protasevich is a neo-Nazi?
EVEN IF HE IS - which everyone who knows him says he absolutely is not - THIS IS NOT THE STORY. Only Putin & Lukashenko want you to think it is.

Russia and Belarus (let’s not kid ourselves that Belarus did this on its one) hijacked a plane to kidnap and jail a journo critical of the evil Lukashenko regime. They want to distract from the air piracy and detention of a dissident who may very likely be killed by the state.

THAT is the story. Two evil, rogue, terrorist, authoritarian regimes manufacture cause to detain and then torture and kill those who dare to utter a critical word. Not that who they detained could be anything the regimes claim about him to distract from their criminality.

In this case, it is especially troubling that groups like Bellingcat are pursuing a story beneficial to Lukashenko because it is based on the foundational Kremlin LIE that Ukrainians are neo-Nazis. Protasevich is being accused of same because of supposed connections to Ukraine.

One of Moscow’s biggest & most successful lies about Ukraine is that the country, and its 2014 Revolution of Dignity, are nothing more than hateful neonazi extremists. Many western journos have helped pushed this lie for years, doing “deep dives” on patriots to discredit them.

Many people who volunteered to go to the front lines and defend the country when Russia first militarily invaded Ukraine in 2014 were rapidly portrayed as evil extremists. This was to discredit any defence against RU’s bloody and unprovoked war of aggression.

Battalions formed by volunteers to fight Russia and protect Ukraine at a time when Ukraine’s military was totally gutted by the corrupt, runaway, pro-Russian president Yanukovych (who Putin is hiding in Russia to this day). Protasevich is being linked to one of these battalions.

This particular battalion has been the focus on many a Kremlin story on how they are a bunch of neonazis. Many a western journo has carried water for the Kremlin, “investigating” the people who helped defend Ukraine when it could barely defend itself.

In addition to distracting everyone from the REAL story of a dissident journalist being abducted off a hijacked plane by a rogue regime, asking whether he’s “extremist” because he MAY have supported Ukrainians against Russian aggression also helps fuel the “Ukraine is Nazi” lie.

There is literally no value in spending time looking into whether Roman Protasevich may or may not have been a supporter of Ukrainian volunteers defending the country when it was at its weakest and most vulnerable against unprovoked aggressor Russia.

The only parties who benefit from looking into such possible connections - to help paint THE VICTIM as a guy who we shouldn’t care was pulled from a pirated plane by an authoritarian regime which is a client state of Moscow’s - are in Moscow and Minsk.

It’s nothing more than Kremlin distraction designed to make people not care about the victim of state violence and repression, and to breathe life into propaganda lies about Ukraine when Russia looks to be upping violence.

So why the hell is Bellingcat supporting this endeavour?

Also, if Protesevich DID have any involvement with the Ukrainian volunteer battalion, the only thing we should be saying about it is that he clearly supports the victims of Moscow’s hatred, illegal violence, oppression, and destruction.