'We need to wait until the economic situation worsens ... and people take to the street for a bowl of soup, to put it bluntly,' Pratasevich said.
Lukashenko has defended the Ryanair flight diversion as a legitimate response to the bomb threat, and the program aired Wednesday appeared designed to back the contention that the Belarusian authorities were unaware that Pratasevich was aboard the diverted plane.
Pratasevich charged that the person — whom he didn't name — had links with opposition-minded hackers who have attacked Belarusian official websites and issued bomb threats in the past. Pratasevich also noted that some time before the flight he had a rift with Franak Viachorka, an adviser to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition candidate in the August presidential election.
In the footage, Pratasevich said he tried to stay away from his girlfriend after the landing, hoping that the authorities wouldn't arrest her. Sofia Sapega didn't feature in the new TV program, but she was shown in a video from prison last week, confessing to running a channel that revealed personal data about Belarusian security officers.
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