DISINFO: A “female kitchen maid” unable to combine two words could not have won Belarusian elections
SUMMARY
The pressure on Belarus started not today or yesterday. Last year, there was a true hybrid war [against Belarus]. Initially, there was a plan to decide the fate of the country on the streets. When this plan failed, they created the fifth column that now lives in Lithuania and Poland – Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Pavel Latushka. Who are these people? Who chose them? Why the Presidents of foreign countries appoint some leaders for the Belarusians? Why should we negotiate with these people? Latushka is nobody, just a former theatre director. What reasonable person can believe that a “female kitchen maid” unable to combine two words together could have won the Presidential elections? According to the official data, she received ten per cent, not more. These people lost the elections and there will be no negotiations with them.
RESPONSE
Recurrent disinformation narrative against the Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and the Belarusian opposition in general.
This disinformation claim aims to smear Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya as a puppet of the West, allegedly sponsored by Poland and Lithuania. No evidence is presented to back such claims.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was the main opposition candidate in the Belarusian Presidential election and was forced to go into exile in Lithuania after being detained and receiving threats following the beginning of the protests. The Belarusian and Russian propaganda regularly attack Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, picturing her as a “housewife” or a “kitchen maid”.
Pavel Latushka is another leader of the Belarusian opposition - in past, he was the Belarusian Ambassador to Poland and France as well as the Minister of Culture in 2009-2012.
Poland and the rest of the EU do not recognise the results of the manipulated 2020 Presidential elections in Belarus – the EU member states do not recognise Alyaksandr Lukashenka as a legitimate Belarusian President. There is no doubt that the recent Presidential elections in Belarus were not free and the results were substantially manipulated – this position is shared by the EU, OSCE, and the USA.
In this situation, the authorities of Democratic countries communicate with the leaders of the Belarusian democratic opposition such as Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya and other representatives of the Belarusian society as these people have strong public support in Belarus.
The Belarusian opposition, represented by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, was awarded the 2020 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the highest tribute paid by the European Union to Human Rights work.
See other cases connected to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: In Belarus, Poland focuses exclusively on relations with the opposition; Poland and Lithuania finance Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s political agenda; Tsikhanouskaya is controlled by foreign puppeteers, primarily Lithuanian ones.
This message appeared in the same article as the claim that the EU sanctions were imposed to impoverish the common people.