DISINFO: The West aims at cultivating anti-Russian sentiments in Belarus
SUMMARY
The West wants to disrupt Belarus-Russia relations by promoting Belarusian nationalism similar to the Ukrainian model. It is reported that the US and Poland have stopped financing all human rights organisations in Belarus in exchange for a nationalistic course set by Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The most important news opportunities for the promotion of nationalistic Belarusian sentiments in the Belarusian society are the anniversary of the Belarusian Popular Republic, the Kurapaty memorial site, the construction of Belarusian nuclear power plant, and discrediting the Russian Orthodox Church. Public protests are in a way the Belarusian opposition’s form of reporting to the West.
RESPONSE
This message is a conspiracy consistent with most common Belarus-related pro-Kremlin narratives, that is about the West's attempts to stage a colour revolution in Belarus, to turn Belarus into an anti-Russian country, about Belarusian democratic opposition, civil society and independent media being subservient to the West, and that the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church is favoured by the West in order to organise a full-scale split from the Russian Orthodox Church. Furthermore, the message mentions Kurapaty memorial site which has recently turned into another object of pro-Kremlin propaganda claiming that the West attempts to use the memorial to destabilize Belarus.