The trip to a music festival of four Latvian youths ended at the border, where Belarusian border guards as if found a bag of marijuana in their car.
They were detained and could have faced up to several years in prison. But an investigation by Belarus eventually found them innocent and allowed them to return home. But only after they had given interviews to local TV channels praising the Belarusian order. On Tuesday, the footage was broadcast on Belarusian state television immediately after the evening's main news bulletin.
The detainee, Daniels Cirsis, said in an interview with a Belarusian media outlet: "We were treated nicely, we have no complaints."
Violeta, the detained young man's mother, told the Belarusian media: "Belarus protects its border, its country and its people. Thank God that they solved this situation so quickly, qualitatively and correctly."
What happened was probably not a war on drugs, said Jānis Sārts, Head of the NATO Strategic Communication Center of Excellence.
"We cannot say whether there were drugs at all. It was a propaganda operation aimed at communicating with the Belarusian and Russian population, and secondarily with the Russian-speaking population in Latvia. They were trying to say that they are much more human, much nicer than they are told about in Latvia. In a way, an attempt to promote protest through different tools and techniques."
The State Security Service has also made a similar assessment, pointing out that in this way the Belarusian regime is trying to create a positive image for itself while denigrating Latvia and other NATO member states.
Sārts emphasized that when traveling to Belarus or Russia, there are also much greater risks - both of being recruited by the special services and of becoming a hostage to be exchanged for spies of aggressor countries detained in the West.
"They try to find the person they catch, build a case, often to the point of execution, and then use that person as a tool to get them to trade for the person they value."
The Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also been involved in the release of the young people, but cooperation with the Belarusian side has been difficult. The Ministry is therefore once again reminding people not to go to Belarus.
Solvita Martinsone, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: "There are various risks, the development of the security situation is also unpredictable. We therefore advise against going to Belarus, given that Latvian nationals may be subject to various provocations by the services, and people may be wrongly accused of wrongdoing and detained."
