Raman Pratasevich Becomes the Hero of a French Spy Novel
The Minsk Central District Court recognized the book "Noah" by French writer Marc Levy as "extremist materials" in Belarus. "Nasha Niva" immediately bought the book and read it for you.
Raman Pratasevich. Photo from his TG channel, March 1, 2026
"Noah" is the third book in a series about the hacker group "9", who live in different parts of the world and fight for justice. It was written sometime in 2020-2021, as there is no mention of the war in Ukraine, but some of the events take place in Kyiv.
The book itself begins promisingly.
Here are the first lines: "Akrestina, Minsk. Belarus. Friday morning. Darya has been waiting in a cell next to the visiting room for three hours."
Who is Darya? A public activist, a resistance participant. In the morning, she works for "Nasha Niva," then for "Nexta" – according to the plot, the last bastions of independent media in Belarus, and in the evening, for some "Human Rights Bureau." This is not "Viasna" but some pro-government organization, but, as it turns out later, everyone there joined the resistance.
Who does Darya meet at Akrestina? With Nikolay, the husband of the housewife Svetlana (her surname is not mentioned), who defeated dictator Luchin in the elections in spring 2020. Elsewhere, it is written that the elections took place on August 9, and then large-scale demonstrations and women's protests were held every Sunday.
The authorities force Svetlana and her two children to Vilnius and forbid her from public activity, leaving Nikolay as a hostage.
Darya is killed by the authorities on page 27. She is a friend of Janis, one of the members of group "9", who lives in Tel Aviv.
Janis decides to take revenge and goes to Belarus. But entering the country is difficult. The editor-in-chief of "Haaretz" newspaper has a solution: a six-page article about the Chagall Museum in Vitebsk.
Meanwhile, Janis finds herself in a difficult situation. She wrote a long article about British billionaire Cash, who owns diamond deposits in South Africa.
Cash finances some right-wing populist party called "Garbage" in Britain (possibly hinting at Nigel Farage's Reform UK) and has close contacts with Russian special services. Cash sued Janis and is demanding a million pounds in compensation.
And here's a new twist. The evidence of Cash's involvement was handed over by Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich.
"Raman Pratasevich is a smiling young man, free but hiding from the authorities. He and his girlfriend live between two countries – Poland and Lithuania. Raman was born a year before the dictator came to power and joined the opposition as a teenager. He first participated in protests when he was fifteen, still a schoolboy. At that time, thousands of Belarusians took to the streets, outraged by the autocrat's re-election and the corruption that was destroying the country. It was then that he became interested in politics and became an activist. At seventeen, he was already an administrator of two protest websites. His activities were reported to the authorities, and security service agents detained and tortured him."
His story begins in Athens, where Raman, along with his girlfriend Sofia, participates in an important political conference. Sofia gives a passionate speech about how Western billionaires finance right-wing populist movements in Europe.
After the conference, Raman notices surveillance in the city and at the airport. Then you know what happened.
Raman and Sofia fly on a flight from Athens to Vilnius. KGB agents start a fight among themselves on board, the plane is forced to land in Minsk. Raman and Sofia are arrested; Raman, to protect his girlfriend, gives a confession.
But he also manages to leave an encrypted message to friends from group "9," and Janis rushes to help. However, to legally enter our country, she mysteriously travels secretly in a van, hidden in a compartment with a painting by Lithuanian artist Vytautas Kasiulis.
There are a couple of oddities in the book. The main Belarusian prison is Akrestina, which is actually a complex of two buildings.
During his previous "visits" there, Raman Pratasevich managed to describe all the floors and what was happening there in detail, which poses a danger to the authorities.
Meanwhile, Nikolay, Svetlana's husband, continues to share details about Akrestina during his meetings with Darya. The wife of Akrestina's chief organized a grand laundry there, where, literally and figuratively, all the money is laundered.
The KGB headquarters are somehow located at Yasenina, 67.
At the same time, there is a large-scale underground movement in Belarus, and the people are awaiting D-Day.
Janis arrives in Belarus, meets with members of the underground, but how to get into Akrestina? After writing an article about Chagall, she decides to surrender to the police to be sent to prison.
Marc Levy. Wikimedia Commons
There she meets Raman, beaten but unbroken.
Meanwhile, members of group "9" send trucks with routers and equipment to Belarus, and on D-Day, they paralyze the internet in Belarus and halt flights at the airport.
The walls of Akrestina fell. The password was "Spring begins in the East." Tens of thousands of people march to the border to overthrow the remnants of the regime. Luchin's associates flee abroad.
The book ends promisingly: "Left alone in the huge office, Luchin picks up the phone, tries in vain to reach the head of security, threatens to have him shot. (...) The dictator swiftly heads for the office door and, throwing it wide open, sees that there is no one in the gallery. Where is all the staff? Where are his bodyguards, attachés, everyone who serves him? He hastily walks through the empty offices, slams doors, calls for help.
Turning precisely in military fashion, he returns to his office and locks the door. His residence is surrounded; Svetlana is entering Minsk."
Why is the book called "Noah"? Noah is a friend of Janis and a top Israeli intelligence officer who, at a critical moment, flies to Minsk by helicopter, disguised in OMON uniform, infiltrates Akrestina, and frees Janis and her new friend, the Belarusian-speaking prisoner Iryna.