DISINFO: Russia is restoring its historical space, and Belarus is just the first step
SUMMARY
Russia is restoring its historical space, which shrank after the USSR broke up. This historical process can only be stopped if the Russian Federation, the backbone of the Russian civilisation, is disintegrated. The restoration of historic unity corresponds to the interests of Russia and all former Soviet republics.
Belarus is a historical part of Russia, and the Belarusian people are an integral part of the Russian people together with Great Russians and Little Russians. The Belarus-Russia integration accelerated once Belarus's sovereignty was threatened by the West. Western plans to tear Belarus away from Russia are doomed. The deepening of Belarus-Russia integration is proof that the Russia-led integration of post-Soviet countries is inevitable. Sooner or later, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine will join the Eurasian Economic Union.
RESPONSE
This message is part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism and imperialism and suits a recurring propaganda narrative about Western attempts to organise a colour revolution in Belarus and disrupt Belarus-Russia relations.
The deepening of Belarus-Russia integration is not backed by the popular support in Belarus and is driven by illegitimate Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenka, who received Kremlin's political, financial, and media support amid unprecedentedly massive protests following the falsification of the 9 August 2020 presidential elections. Both the EU and the US referred to the elections as neither free nor fair and refused to recognise Lukashenka as the legitimate president of Belarus. According to international election monitoring organisations such as OSCE and Civil Rights Defenders, every single one of the last five presidential elections in Belarus has been unfair and unfree, which is the primary reason for the public discontent.
The “Russian civilisation/world” is a nationalist geopolitical concept justifying Russian expansionism in the post-Soviet sphere.
The publication uses the derogatory term 'Little Russians' to identify Ukrainians, which derives from imperial Russian and Russian irredentist ideology that is a favoured pro-Kremlin narrative aimed at weakening the national identity of Ukrainians and undermining Ukraine's sovereignty. Belarusians and Ukrainians are not part of the Russian people as alleged, Belarus and Ukraine are well-defined nation-states with a long history, which preserved language, literature and identity, despite foreign rule for long periods.
See earlier disinformation cases alleging that the West is targeting the Union State between Belarus and Russia, that Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine are three Russian political nations, and that the West's objective is to encircle Russia entirely thanks to the "Anaconda ring" and "Great Turan" doctrines.