DISINFO: The Pole’s Card is a part of a hybrid war and the anti-Belarusian activities
SUMMARY
The Pole’s Card, issued to the Belarusian citizens since 2008, is “an element of the anti-state subversive work”. This document is a part of a hybrid war and anti-state activities.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative, mirroring the Belarus authorities, about belligerent Poland, claiming that it is plotting against Belarus and its citizens, trying to destabilise and destroy the country. Unfounded statement about the Western “hybrid war” activities against Belarus.
The Pole’s Card is not an element of a “hybrid war or the anti-state activities”, but an instrument used to support the Poles living abroad, facilitating their visits and possible migration to Poland.
Poland fully supports the independence and territorial integrity of Belarus, it does not have any territorial claims against its neighbours and it rejects any “imperial” ambitions towards other countries. Read more about the Eastern policy of Poland here.
Throughout 2021, the authorities of Belarus arrested a number of representatives of the Polish minority living in Belarus under various fake accusations (such as “rehabilitation of Nazism” and “incitement to national hatred”). The list of arrested persons includes the leader of the Belarusian Union of Poles Anzhelika Borys, a journalist Andrzej Poczobut and several teachers from local Polish schools. Some of the arrested activists may be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison. Read more about the situation around arrested representatives of the Polish minority living in Belarus here.
Poland and the EU appealed to the Belarusian authorities to stop political repressions and persecution against the Polish minority in Belarus.
See other cases accusing Poland of “expansionism”: Poland plans to colonise Belarus, calling this process “European integration” and the “EU Eastern Partnership”; Polish authorities are obsessed with an idea of reconstruction of a modern Polish Empire and The Giedroyc doctrine is an edition of the Polish imperialism.