DISINFO: After Ukraine, Western scriptwriters tried to organise coup d'état in Belarus and Kazakhstan
SUMMARY
After Ukraine, the same Western scriptwriters tried to organise coup d'état in Belarus and Kazakhstan. But this was not possible thanks to Russia and the CSTO.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Western attempts to organise a colour revolution in Belarus and about January 2022 protests in Kazakhstan.
The pro-Kremlin media frequently falsely portray popular protests around the world as instigated from abroad, often by the US and the West. The disinformation narrative has been applied, among others, to reports about protests in Georgia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Belarus, Venezuela, Slovakia, Hong Kong, with the aim of portraying protest movements as aggressive actors who constantly prepare new coups.
Contrary to the claim about the coup, protests in Belarus erupted to contest the results of the presidential election in Belarus on the 9th of August, which were not monitored by independent experts, and are largely considered fraudulent by both international observers and a large part of the Belarusian society. Mobilisations were organised and carried out by local actors, opposition politicians, and Belarusian citizens, without any foreign involvement.
There is no evidence to support claims about foreign interference in the unrest in Kazakhstan. Instead, growing evidence points to an ongoing power struggle in the country as a driving cause in the radicalisation and expansion of the protests, which started peacefully after the government lifted price controls on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), in an already volatile context in the country.
This claim is advanced as part of a push suggesting a Western policy of staging “colour revolutions” worldwide with the aim of destabilising Russia. In this case, the allegations seem to have been tailored to justify the Russian-led intervention of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation in the country.
See other examples: the West wants to prepare another Maidan in Belarus; protests in Belarus held by foreign scenarios; US-sponsored Kazakhstan protests aimed to undermine CIS stability, events in Kazakhstan are another Western-made colour revolution.