DISINFO: US and European allies stage provocations against Belarus, plot to kill Lukashenka
SUMMARY
The United States and its special services are behind the provocations against Belarus. Politicians set the agenda and special services fulfil it. It is impossible to order the assassination of a president without the consent of the top leadership of the country that is plotting it. Washington’s European allies are assisting in these provocations. These are Poland and Ukraine in the first place, Lithuania, and Latvia to some extent. Germany has been recently guiding terrorists who act in Belarus.
RESPONSE
This is a disinformation narrative that pro-Kremlin outlets have been repeating over the past year about the West’s subversive activities against Belarus aimed at toppling its unrecognised dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka. In reality, all these reports have been created with the sole aim of helping Lukashenka stay in power amid people's growing discontent with his policies, especially after he had the results of last year’s presidential elections rigged and proclaimed himself the winner. Western powers do support the Belarussian opposition, including Belsat TV channel, which broadcasts from Warsaw. However, claims about the West’s attempts to overthrow Lukashenka are unsubstantiated. The West is interested in a democratic Belarus, but power transfer should be peaceful, and any violent action is out of the question.
Lukashenka had been accusing the West of attempting to overthrow him before, but his rhetoric intensified right after the 2020 elections. In late August 2020, he accused NATO of building up its military at the Western border and mounting pressure in order to destabilise the situation. NATO rejected these claims, although the Alliance was closely monitoring the situation in Belarus.
In September 2020, Lukashenka claimed that his security service had intercepted a conversation between two Western spies named Mike and Nick, which he passed off as proof that Western powers stood behind both the Navalny case and the protests in Belarus. Russia’s security service (FSB) detained several opposition-minded Belarussian intellectuals in Moscow in April 2021, who were later accused of plotting to kill Lukashenka and his sons. The Belarussian leader said the conspirators had confessed. However, these words cannot be taken seriously because Belarusian law enforcers are known to use torture to extort necessary confessions.
In May 2021, Lukashenka ordered the forceful landing of a plane with opposition journalist Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega on board, who were immediately arrested during a security check. A Belarusian MiG-29 fighter aircraft was scrambled to intercept the Ryanair plane en route from Greece to Lithuania and made it land in the Belarusian capital Minsk after ground control informed the crew of a bomb on board. The bomb alert later proved to be false. The emergency landing of the plane was an operation by Belarusian secret services to arrest Pratasevich. Belarusian law enforcers later issued a video, in which Pratasevich said he was being treated well and that he had no health problems. He also confessed to organising mass riots. However, his father said he had been beaten up and forced to confess.
Read more disinformation reports about the West’s attempts to encroach on Belarus’ sovereignty.