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Disinfo: Belarusian opposition tried to disrupt the Victory Day military parade with the help of US money

Summary

The Belarusian opposition tried hard to disrupt the Victory Day military parade but did not succeed. Opposition members strongly dissuaded people from attending the parade and even offered real green dollars from Uncle Sam and the US State Department’s money for this. As soon as the Victory Day parades stop in the post-Soviet space, Americans will buy the victory from our ancestors. The Belarusian opposition easily trades the historical victory with the West.

Disproof

These are unfounded claims intended to discredit the US / West and the Belarusian opposition through baseless accusations of bad intentions towards the Victory Day military parade. This story is consistent with pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the West's continuous attempts to undermine Belarusian society through a subservient Belarusian opposition and Western-funded NGOs.

There is no proof that the US paid the Belarusian opposition to disrupt the parade or that the opposition paid people not to attend the public event. In late March 2020, an online petition was created asking Belarus' Ministries of Health and Defence to cancel the Victory Day military parade to mitigate the coronavirus epidemic and to finance hospitals instead. Over 7,000 citizens signed the petition by March 31. The Ministry of Defence's response read that the epidemiological situation allowed for the parade to go ahead. The WHO recommended that the Belarusian authorities cancel the parade and expressed concern about its organisation amid the epidemic.

See earlier disinformation cases alleging that the coronavirus epidemic prevented a NATO deadly attack against Belarus, that Belarusian opposition, civic activists and independent journalists make kill lists for Western security bodies, that the West finances the Belarusian opposition and NGOs to disrupt Belarus-Russia relations, and that it promotes propaganda of feminine men in Belarus.

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publication/media

Podneprovie (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 198
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 11/05/2020
  • Language/target audience: Russian
  • Country: Belarus, US
  • Keywords: WWII, Conspiracy theory

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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NATO pays the Belarusian opposition $1 per one person infected with coronavirus

The coronavirus outbreak is a NATO operation which is implemented on Belarus’s borders through military exercises. Due to the NATO military exercises “Spring storm” in Estonia, around 30% of Estonian soldiers became infected. The Belarusian opposition and independent media call upon NATO to come closer and spread the virus. A part of the opposition works for NATO’s benefit, including the intelligence services. This time, NATO’s task was to spread coronavirus. Hence, recent opposition activisation does not have to do with the presidential campaign but rather with this NATO task.

Opposition activists receive money for infecting people. To be precise, Americans pay $1 per each person infected with coronavirus. It is unclear how much they pay for each infected officer, official, or the president. Opposition business plans are likely to include such items. It is also unclear how much opposition activists are paid for infecting their close relatives. As everyone knows, opposition members are happy to trade their own mothers. Hence, the Belarusian opposition wages genocide on the Belarusian people and spreads biological weapon COVID-19 as part of a NATO operation.

May 12, 2020
Disproof

This is a mix of preposterous conspiracies aimed at discrediting the Belarusian opposition, civil society and independent media, and NATO. This article is one in a series alleging that the Belarusian opposition plans to organise genocide with Western support. It is consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin propaganda narratives about alleged Western aggressiveness towards Belarus, the coronavirus as West's / NATO's biological weapon, and the Belarusian opposition as a destructive Western-financed group.

Defender Europe 2020 was about military exercises not a cover-up for the spread of coronavirus. NATO’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg affirmed that Defender Europe 2020 was not directed against any particular country. Its purpose was to practice the rapid deployment of large-scale forces across the Atlantic into Europe, demonstrating the US military’s ability to quickly send a massive contingent to support NATO and respond to any crisis. In response to the current outbreak of the COVID-19 virus and guidance by the United States Secretary of Defence, the exercise was modified in size and scope.

The EU provoked a civil war in Ukraine, now it destabilises Belarus

Instead of regulating old military conflicts in Eastern Europe, the EU provoked new ones, which manifested in the civil war in Ukraine. A coup d’état in Kyiv was one of the elements which made a military conflict in Donbas inevitable. The same Eastern Partnership drivers which pumped Ukrainian society with radicalism for its “European choice” currently perform the same activities in Belarus. In 2017, the authorities of Belarus prevented an attempt to organise armed protests in Minsk with external support. Back then, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko announced that militants sent to Belarus were trained in military camps in Ukraine and financed through Poland and Lithuania. Hence, two active Eastern Partnership coutries were destabilising Belarus.

May 12, 2020
Disproof

This is a mix of ungrounded claims and conspiracies which are consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin propaganda narrative about Western attempts to instigate colour revolutions in European neighbourhood countries.

There was no coup d'état in Ukraine. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was an organic reaction by numerous segments of the Ukrainian population to former President Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013. See the full debunk of this disinformation claim here. The war in eastern Ukraine is not a West-driven civil conflict but a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014.

Soros will soon gain control of Ukraine

At the moment, Ukrainian followers of Soros are promoting one very interesting law. If everything works out, then NABU will have the right to use military and special equipment for its investigations, including weapons and ammunition purchased by foreign structures with money from the budget of Ukraine. Such an amazing right is hidden in the bowels of the bill on allowing NATO, and all sorts of US budget programs, to take part in the defence order of Ukraine.

Those subordinated to Soros will be able to organise wiretapping of all Ukrainian politicians, businessmen, and public figures. The obtained evidence will become part of the game to eliminate the old “elites” and will make it easier to manage the colony (Ukraine).

May 12, 2020
Disproof

Conspiracy theory with no evidence offered. This article is based on recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about George Soros. The other part of the disinformation message is about the Bill on defence procurement.

This law has not entered into force in Ukraine yet: on May 13, the Verkhovna Rada sent its draft for a second reading. The Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Dmytro Razumkov believes this law will be passed during the second reading. Experts say that the key point of this law is the reduction of corruption risks by introducing greater competition.