DISINFO: Poland and Lithuania are directly controlling the coup in Belarus
SUMMARY
The pro-Western opposition of Belarus has been trying for several months to implement a revolutionary scenario in the country. Western countries support the putschists. Poland and Lithuania are directly controlling the coup.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Belarusian protests.
There is no evidence that Poland, Lithuania or any other Western governments are at all involved in the protests in Belarus. Protests in Belarus erupted to contest the results of the presidential election in Belarus on the 9th of August, which were not monitored by independent experts, and are largely considered fraudulent by both international observers and a big part of the Belarusian society. On 19 August 2020 the European Council called the Belarusian elections neither free nor fair. Mobilisations were organised and carried out by local actors, opposition politicians and Belarusian citizens without any foreign involvement.
In October 2020, the EU-Council imposed sanctions against 40 individuals identified as responsible for repression and intimidation against peaceful demonstrators, opposition members and journalists in the wake of the 2020 presidential election in Belarus, as well as for misconduct of the electoral process. See the full text and the Council conclusions (page 10). The Council added 15 members of the Belarusian authorities, including Alexandr Lukashenko, as well as his son and National Security Adviser Viktor Lukashenko, to the list of sanctions, on 6 November 2020.
Read earlier disinformation cases alleging that Poland is preparing a Euromaidan scenario for Belarus, that Belarus will turn anti-Russian in case it does not deepen integration with Russia, that the West's only interest in Belarus is to make it anti-Russian, and that the US plans to turn Belarus into its colony, a coup and foreign military invasion may happen.
Other cases allege that the West is helping to destabilise the situation in Belarus before the election, that US agents attempt to overthrow Lukashenka along the Ukrainian scenario, that the West dreams of tearing Belarus apart from Russia and to organise a Ukraine-like scenario, and that pro-Western Belarusian opposition prepares a revolution with the assistance of armed Ukrainian nationalists.