Jailed Belarus journalist: Mass protests have fizzled

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A dissident journalist who was arrested after his plane was diverted to Belarus said in a video from prison that demonstrations against the country's authoritarian leader had fizzled and the opposition should wait for a better moment to revive them. It was Raman Pratasevich's second such appearance that his allies dismissed as being coerced.

In footage broadcast Wednesday night on Belarusian state TV in an hour-long program, the 26-year-old Pratasevich also said that he had been set up by an unidentified associate.

The presenter of the broadcast on the ONT channel claimed the Belarusian authorities were unaware that Pratasevich was aboard a Ryanair jet flying from Greece to Lithuania when flight controllers diverted it to the Belarusian capital of Minsk on May 23, citing a bomb threat. No bomb was found, but Pratasevich was arrested along with his Russian girlfriend.

Outraged European Union leaders called the diversion an act of air piracy and responded by barring the Belarusian flag carrier Belavia from the bloc's airports and airspace and telling European airlines to skirt Belarus. They also drafted new bruising measures against the country's top industrial enterprises, doubling down on sanctions previously introduced by the U.S. and the EU.

President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation of 9.3 million with an iron fist for more than a quarter-century, has accused the West of trying to “strangle” his country with sanctions.

On Thursday, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry announced cuts of U.S. diplomatic personnel, the tightening of travel rules for Americans and other restrictions in retaliation to the U.S. sanctions against Belarusian companies.

The video of Pratasevich, who left Belarus in 2019 and has become a top foe of...