Disinfo: The West's only interest in Belarus is to make it anti-Russian

Summary

The West’s primary interest concerning Belarus is to turn it into an anti-Russia country either through the organisation of a colour revolution or by military means. During NATO military exercise Anakonda’18, a Polish map was published showing the direction of NATO attacks pointing at Minsk. The map also depicts a border on the East of Poland dividing Belarus as it was before September 1939.

Disproof

This message is a conspiracy consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin narratives about the West's attempts to stage a colour revolution in Belarus, to turn Belarus into an anti-Russian country, and about Poland's plans to partition Belarus and establish the Fourth Republic. The message refers to alleged Polish maps in use during 2018 military exercises. ANAKONDA 2018 was a Polish-led multinational military exercise which took place in November 2018. It involved around 12,500 troops in Poland and approximately 5,000 troops from 10 NATO allies in the Baltic states and aimed to increase interoperability between the allies. During the exercise, a number of webpages with dubious reputations and unknown ownership including Opednews.com published an article allegedly presenting NATO military scenarios. The article contained four maps, allegedly of the Polish military. On one, Western Belarus was shown as being taken by US, Polish, Lithuanian, and Latvian troops. This article in Lithuanian, alleging aggressive NATO plans, was briefly published by Lithuanian internet portal Kas vyksta Kaune without editorial authorisation, as a result of a cyber-attack. The publication of this propaganda about NATO's planned invasion to Belarus due to a cyber-attack against a Lithuanian internet portal was widely covered in the Lithuanian press (see here and here).

Go to search

publication/media

Vesti24.by (Archived)
belvpo.com (Archived)
Soglasie.by (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 149
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 14/04/2019
  • Outlet language(s) Belarusian, Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Poland, Belarus
  • Keywords: West, Anti-Russian, Colour revolutions, Conspiracy theory, NATO
see more

Disinfo: US Special Representative Kurt Volker rules in Ukraine

In addition to the 4 oligarchs in Ukraine, there is also a fifth – US Special Representative Kurt Volker, who does what he wants, and who actually rules the country.

Apr 13, 2019
Disproof

On 7 July 2017, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appointed Ambassador Kurt Volker as the special representative for Ukraine. He took the responsibility for advancing US. efforts to achieve the objectives set out in the Minsk agreements, Kurt Volker has no other responsibilities. In his video message at the Kyiv Security Forum, Kurt Volker said: “We welcome the Ukrainian people to successfully conduct the first round of presidential elections. We wish you success in holding the second round of presidential elections, as well as parliamentary elections in the fall." He also added that the United States does not support any of the presidential candidates in Ukraine, but advocates respect for the principles. Similar cases on this issue you could find here and here.

Disinfo: The Ukrainian election is a competition of falsification and extortion

Ukrainian elections are very competitive – but it is a competition of falsification and extortion. The elections are not very fair.

Apr 12, 2019
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Ukraine elections. “What I observed was a free choice by free people. Ukrainians demonstrated their strong commitment to democratic and Euro-Atlantic values. I saw the enthusiasm of citizens of all ages participating in the election process in impressive numbers,” said Michal Szczerba, Head of the delegation from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly at the afterwards press conference on the results of the first tour of elections. The OSCE PA Election Observation Mission in Ukraine has declared that the first round of the presidential elections in Ukraine was competitive, and citizens had the opportunity to freely express their will. “We can admit that there were definitely competitive elections and the opportunity to vote for the candidate the citizens wanted to elect was provided”, the OSCE Special Coordinator, OSCE PA Honorary President Ilkka Kanerva said. Following the first round of the presidential elections in Ukraine, the same position was announced by the Head of the EP election observation delegation Dariusz Rosati. According to him, these elections were definitely competitive, since no candidate could be clearly identified as the likely winner. The Canadian Election Observation Mission in Ukraine also considers the elections as fair. A press release of the Canadian Mission says that Ukraine’s highly competitive presidential election meets international standards.

Disinfo: Belarusian opposition, civic activists and independent journalists make kill lists for Western security bodies

Each opposition organisation, civic activists and independent media outlets in Belarus prepare kill lists, which contain information (first and last names, names of the relatives, passwords, photos, etc.) about high-ranking state officials, policemen and employees of other law-enforcement agencies, entrepreneurs, etc. For instance, civic activists can take photos of Belarusian policemen in plain clothes at public events such as the celebration of the 101st anniversary of the Belarusian People’s Republic. These lists are likely aggregated into one database, controlled by Western security bodes. In case of a peaceful power change in Belarus the persons in the kill lists will be subject to lustration. Law-enforcement agencies like the Ministry of Interior, the KGB and the Investigation Committee will be dissolved. The restoration of the law-enforcement apparatus will take place on the orders of Western donors. In case the power change in Belarus is not peaceful, then those on the kill lists and their relatives will be declared the enemies of the people and executed whereas their kids will be labeled the dregs of society.

Apr 12, 2019
Disproof

Conspiracy theory and ungrounded claims aimed to discredit the West, democratic Belarusian opposition, civic activists and independent journalists. This disinformation message is a modification of recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about western attempts to organize a colour revolution in Belarus and to disrupt Belarus-Russia relations.