Disinfo: Europe uses the situation with migrants to create a provocation against Lukashenka

Summary

What is happening now on the border between Belarus and Poland is not a Polish provocation against Belarus and its president, it is an American provocation.

Europe is not satisfied with blaming President Lukashenka for the migrant crisis, which is a Western provocation against the people of Belarus. It is trying to denigrate President Putin because of this situation as well.

Unfortunately, Europe is more busy blaming Belarus than solving this problem. It does not matter [for Europe] how many migrants die of starvation or cold. The main thing [for Europe] is to use all this effectively against President Lukashenka.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the ongoing migration situation on the eastern border of the European Union with Belarus.

There is plenty of evidence that the Belarusian authorities have instigated the ongoing migration crisis in Lithuania, Poland and Latvia. Lukashenka's regime is using migrants from the Middle East as "political and hybrid" tools against Lithuania and the entire EU.

On 15 November 2021, the EU broadened the scope for sanctions to tackle hybrid attacks and instrumentalisation of migrants. The EU will now be able to target individuals and entities organising or contributing to activities by the Lukashenka regime that facilitate the illegal crossing of the EU's external borders. This came amid the growing instrumentalisation of migration by the Belarusian authorities.

Moreover, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that situation on the EU-Belarusian border is not a bilateral issue of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus but a hybrid attack against the whole EU. The vice-president of the European Commission and high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy (HRVP) Josep Borrell stressed that responsibility for the migration crisis falls on the Lukashenka regime.

The EU did not recognise the falsified results of the Belarusian Presidential election on 9 August 2020 or the new mandate claimed by Alyaksandr Lukashenka. On 2 October 2020, the Council imposed the first round of restrictive measures over ongoing repression. The EU imposed two more rounds of restrictive measures against the Belarusian regime in 2020, followed by the fourth package of sanctions in view of the escalation of serious human rights violations and the forced landing of a Ryanair flight.

See our articles on the Belarus migrants situation here and here.

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 267
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 01/12/2021
  • Article language(s) Georgian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Belarus, Poland, Russia, EU
  • Keywords: migration, Alexander Lukashenko, European Union, Provocation
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