DISINFO: EU is creating a poverty belt in the East of the EU, to secure access to cheap labour
SUMMARY
The EU is creating a poverty belt in its east, consisting of Ukraine, the Baltic States and now Belarus, in order to secure access to cheap labour and sales markets. It has been the economic survival model of the Baltic States for years to export low-wage labour to other EU countries, it has become the business model of Ukraine and it will also become the model of Belarus. When Belarus turns to the EU and the West, that is what will follow – the complete exploitation of the country, a wave of industrial bankruptcies, the decay of the infrastructure, in short: the complete economic decline in Belarus. This is what Belarus, unlike Russia, was largely spared of in the nineties of the last century.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Belarus, the West and the EU The Protests in Belarus erupted after thousands of people took to the streets to contest the results of the Presidential elections in Belarus, which are considered fraudulent by a large part of society. This claim about the EU exploiting countries to its east is consistent with the recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about a disastrous horror scenario for the economy in Belarus, in case Belarus should reorientate itself geo-politically towards the West. The EU is not interested in creating a poverty belt in its East, nor in securing access to cheap labour in the Baltics, Ukraine or Belarus. It is a recycled recurrent narrative for EaP-states, that the West or the IMF wants to destroy the Ukrainian economy and to turn Ukrainians into the cheap labour force. The narrative portrays the economic situation of Ukraine as disastrous and alleging that Belarus' future is only possible in union with Russia. Read earlier disinformation cases alleging that Poland is preparing Euromaidan scenario for Belarus, that the West's only interest in Belarus is to make it anti-Russian, that Belarus moves towards complete colonisation by the West, and that Germany created the euro to colonise countries that couldn’t be conquered militarily.