ST.PETERSBURG, June 4. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov is unaware which Russian businessman in particular Roman Protasevich, one of the founders of the Nexta Telegram channel deemed extremist in Belarus, meant when speaking about the project’s sponsors.
Earlier, the detained blogger Protasevich announced that a Russian oligarch had sponsored the project.
"No, I don’t know which businessman [Protasevich] was speaking about. Probably, it’s up to the Belarusian side to specify this," Peskov told reporters on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Peskov replied to a question about whether the Kremlin had paid attention to the detained blogger’s remarks and if it knew the name of that businessman.
On May 23, a Vilnius-bound Ryanair plane that took off from Athens made an emergency landing at Minsk International Airport after a reported bomb threat. A MiG-29 fighter jet alert crew was scrambled to escort the plane. After the landing, the plane was inspected, and no bomb was found on board. The Belarusian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into a false bomb alert. Among the passengers on that flight was Roman Protasevich, one of the co-founders of the Nexta Telegram channel, which Minsk recognized as an extremist entity. Protasevich was detained by law enforcement agents once the plane had landed in the Belarusian capital. Russian national Sofia Sapega was also detained together with him. On May 23 evening, the plane left Minsk airport and continued on to Vilnius.