DISINFO: Foreign agents train fighters abroad to seize power in Belarus
SUMMARY
Belarusian security services have information about foreign agents, who are training fighters in Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic States and who will be used to seize power in Belarus. Belarus has also information about funds, which finance terrorist activities.
RESPONSE
This message is part of a widespread disinformation narrative about the aggressive West menacing Belarus. There is no evidence of any Western attempts to train fighters to seize power in Minsk. Western nations are not instigating a revolt to overthrow Aleksander Lukashenko. Western powers support the Belarusian opposition and Belsat TV channel works out of Warsaw. However, Lukashenko’s claims about Western agents trying to overthrow him 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.
Mass protests in Belarus erupted to contest the results of the presidential election on 9 August 2020, which were not monitored by independent experts, and are largely considered fraudulent by both international observers and a big part of the Belarusian society.
Lukashenko has alleged that the West has attempted to topple him before. In September 2020, he 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.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that the West is waging an undeclared war against Russia and Belarus and that Poland is preparing a rebellion in Belarus.