Disinfo: Lithuania pays Tsikhanouskaya salary to destabilise the situation in Belarus

Summary

Lithuania supports Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya with taxpayers money and pays her salary. It is presented as Western support for "Belarusian people". But the aim of this "support" is to destabilise the situation inside Belarus.

Disproof

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 unwitting Lithuanian taxpayers. 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. She was awarded the 2020 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the highest tribute paid by the European Union to Human Rights work. In July 2021, Lithuania designated Tsikhanouskaya's team as a “democratic representation of Belarus”.

Lithuania is a neighbour of Belarus and it continues to support the Belarusian people. In the context of brutal persecution of protesters in Belarus, Lithuania made some steps to support civil society in the neighbour country. In August 2020 Lithuania opened the special “humanitarian corridor” for Belarusians to allow them to arrive under the so-called humanitarian exception. Vilnius University offered free studies and scholarships to Belarusian students etc.

See other examples of disinformation about Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: Lithuania gives Tsikhanouskaya special treatment; Lithuania provided Tsikhanouskaya with a villa, a manor house and a team of stylists paid by taxpayers; Poland and Lithuania finance Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s political agenda.

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sputniknews.lt (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 267
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 27/11/2021
  • Article language(s) Lithuanian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Lithuania, Belarus
  • Keywords: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, West, Puppets
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Disinfo: President of the European Commission and head of NATO visit Vilnius to instruct authorities

The aim of the joint visit of the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to Vilnius is to give strict instructions to Lithuanian authorities on when and what to say and do. It is very important in the situation with migration crisis on the border between Belarus and Lithuania. Every shot of Lithuanian border guards in the direction of Belarus could be seen by Minsk as the beginning of NATO aggression against the Union State of Belarus and Russia.

Nov 26, 2021
Disproof

A recurring narrative presenting Lithuanian authorities as puppets of the EU and NATO.

The joint visit of the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to Vilnius was a sign of solidarity with the situation on the border between Belarus and the EU. Lukashenka's regime is responsible for the mentioned tensions on the border. There is plenty of evidence that the Belarusian authorities have instigated the ongoing crisis.

Disinfo: The EU asks Russia to let the Donbas population die of starvation

The EU asked Russia to let the Donbas population die of starvation by ceasing its humanitarian aid. As tough as it may seem, this would be the interpretation of the call made by the European Union to withdraw a decree on humanitarian aid recently signed by Vladimir Putin, aimed to alleviate the hard socioeconomic situation in Eastern Ukraine as a result of Kyiv’s blockade and the COVID-19. Russia’s open hand draw the ires of Josep Borrell, whose statement accuses Moscow of “taking unilateral steps that only provoke further aggravation of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine”. According to the West, everything that is done to protect the Donbas population is an “aggravation of the conflict”, while, following this logic, the military attacks of Kyiv’s army against the self-proclaimed republics of the East “contribute to peace”.

Nov 26, 2021
Disproof

Pro-Kremlin disinformation about EU and Ukraine. The claim grossly distorts and misrepresent the statement of the EU.

As the European External Action Service has stated, the Russian decree signed by President Putin on 15 November on simplified trade rules with Donbas aims to further separate the temporarily non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk from Ukraine, in contradiction with the objectives of the Minsk Agreements.

Disinfo: The Ukrainian regime kills the opposition with the help of neo-Nazis

After the 2014 coup, the Ukrainian regime turned to outright terrorism against the opposition, including the killing of opposition politicians and journalists with the help of neo-Nazis, who were integrated into the structures of the security services and the Ministry of Interior.

Nov 26, 2021
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative portraying Ukrainian politics and society as dominated by Nazi/ Fascist ideology; claiming that the Ukrainian regime kills opposition politicians and journalists is a wildly false claim that the article does not even attempt to corroborate.

The myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine has been a cornerstone of Russian disinformation about the country since the very beginning of the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests, when it was used to discredit the pro-European popular uprising in Kyiv and, subsequently, the broader pro-Western shift in Ukraine's foreign policy. Far-right groups had a very limited presence during the protests and went on to obtain abysmal results in the 2014 presidential and parliamentary elections. During the 2019 election cycle, the far-right managed to sustain an even more tremendous failure.