MINSK, June 4. /TASS/. Roman Protasevich, one of the co-founders of the Nexta Telegram channel, which Minsk recognizes as an extremist entity, said on Thursday that he respected Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko despite lashing out at him earlier.

"I won’t conceal it that I criticized Alexander Grigorievich [Lukashenko] a lot. There were reasons for that, as it seemed to me," he told ‘Markov. Nothing Personal’ program on ONT television.

"Of course," Protasevich said when asked whether he respected Lukashenko.

According to the blogger, the more he immersed himself in political activity, the more he began to realize that "many of the things for which Alexander Grigorievich was criticized were in fact just an attempt to put pressure". "I will not conceal that at certain points, I think, some decisions [by the Belarusian leadership] may have been erroneous," he summed up.

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 Sunday evening, the plane left Minsk airport and continued on to Vilnius.