DISINFO: Poland inspired the border crisis with Belarus in order to fight the Nord Stream 2
SUMMARY
The border crisis [with Belarus] was manually created by the ruling team of Kaczyński, Duda and Morawiecki. The first goal of this crisis is the consolidation of the PiS electorate in a situation of the falling party ratings and recent protests.
The second goal in the inspiration of the border crisis is to underline the importance of Poland as a Western and American outpost in Eastern Europe. The border crisis is important for the Polish authorities also in the context of the failure of the large-scale propaganda and political activities aimed at disrupting the construction of the Nord Stream 2. The Polish authorities were the vanguard of the “crusade” against this gas pipeline, which ended in disaster. Today, they need to present some “success story” [in terms of the Nord Stream 2].
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets about the migration crisis on the EU-Belarus borders.
The claim that Poland “manually created” the migration crisis in order to fight with the Nord Stream 2 and reach its domestic and international goals is ungrounded.
The situation was caused by Belarus as a response to EU sanctions imposed on Minsk for its oppressive measures against the political opposition. There is plenty of evidence that the Belarusian authorities have instigated the ongoing irregular migration flows to the EU borders via Belarus.
The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that situation on the EU-Belarusian border is not a bilateral issue of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus but a hybrid attack against the whole EU. The vice-president of the European Commission and high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy (HRVP) Josep Borrell stressed that responsibility for the migration crisis falls on the Lukashenka regime.
See our earlier articles on the Belarus migration situation here and here.