DISINFO: The Belarusian protests are managed from Ukraine and NATO countries, Bernard-Henri Lévy is also involved
SUMMARY
Among the Western countries, Lithuania and Poland carry out the most aggressive policies towards Belarus. They would hardly dare to take such a position without support of the UK and some US political circles. The collective West gave a carte blanche to Vilnius and Warsaw to interfere in Belarusian domestic affairs and use Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya as a puppet. If the Belarusian events were the consequences of domestic affairs only, Russian would not support the Belarusian authorities so openly. Russia made it very clear for everybody on the international arena that Western external pressure on Belarus to carry out a hostile takeover of Belarus along the Ukrainian scenario is not acceptable.
The Belarusian protests are managed by command centres located in Ukraine and NATO countries and fully controlled by foreign security bodies. Lithuania and Poland are just window dressing, covering the real participants of the big game against Russia. The enemy’s aim is to harm Belarusian security and economy as much as possible and to bring a loyalist government to power, or to create long-term instability in the closest country to Russia.
Bernard-Henri Lévy, who inspired the events in Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria and Ukraine, is now supervising Tsikhanouskaya’s team.
RESPONSE
This article promotes recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Belarus protests as being organised and controlled from abroad and as the West's attempt to organise a colour revolution. It is also consistent with pro-Kremlin narratives about the West's aggressive anti-Russian intentions, its activities to disrupt Belarusian-Russian relations, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's 'puppet' status, and a Western takeover of Ukraine.
There is no evidence that the US, UK, Lithuania, Poland, or Ukraine are in anyway involved in the protests in Belarus. Large-scale protests began in Minsk on August 9 against the results of the presidential election, and then in other cities. People revolted against election fraud and police violence towards thousands of rally participants.
According to statistical data and independent observers, the official result of the presidential election was itself heavily doctored. A joint monitoring effort by three NGOs demonstrates the scale of falsification based on election protocols from 1,310 polling stations across Belarus and concludes that the announced result (80% of votes cast for Lukashenka) is mathematically "impossible" (p. 7). An analysis by the Novaya Gazeta newspaper shows that excluding "anomalous" voting districts from the official tally would see Lukashenka's percentage drop to 43%, and Tsikhanouskaya's surge to 45%, in which case a second round would have to be called.
According to human rights advocates, over 15,000 people have been detained in Belarus since the election, and over 100 of them were declared political prisoners. By September 2020, UN human rights experts received reports of 450 documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of people deprived of their liberty after the disputed presidential election and called on Belarus to stop torturing detainees.
In early October 2020, the EU imposed restrictive measures against 40 individuals responsible for repression and intimidation against peaceful demonstrators, opposition members, and journalists in the wake of the 2020 presidential election in Belarus, as well as for misconduct of the electoral process.
Finally, Bernard-Henri Lévy, a French public intellectual, met Tsikhanouskaya informally in September 2020 in Vilnius. However, there is no proof that he is somehow related to her team or that he "inspired the events in Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine" as alleged.
See earlier disinformation cases alleging that imperialistic Poland and Lithuania are the springboard for Belarusian Maidan, that CIA and Pentagon prepares Belarusian protestors in Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states, and that the West destabilises Belarus to destroy Russian civilisation, an alternative route of human development.