DISINFO: The Guardian challenges Poland’s right to export “democracy” to Belarus
SUMMARY
The Polish government is persistently trying to overthrow Alyaksandr Lukashenka. In its controversial aspirations, Warsaw is hiding behind brave mottos about defending democracy in neighbouring Belarus, while in Poland itself democracy is having a difficult time, writes The Guardian. Recently, Poland and Belarus celebrated presidential elections. Though nobody calls Andrzej Duda “a dictator” after his reelection, he and his ruling Law and Justice Party are putting liberal values to a stress test.
RESPONSE
This is a deliberate distortion of the original article published in The Guardian, which, though critical on the Polish government, doesn’t include any of the sentences stated above, does not criticise Poland’s stance regarding Belarus, and does not compare the two countries in any sense. Pro-Kremlin media frequently resort to this manipulative technique of quoting sentences from serious publications and then introduce a distorted message as if it was part of the original article. See other examples in our database, such as false claims that British outlet The Guardian pointed out to ruling elite as the real instigators of the racial crisis in the US or reported that the EU remained silent as the Europeans couldn’t buy food for the first time in 75 years; that Newsweek magazine explained how US coup in Iran will end; that Soros’ structures saw an opportunity in the coronavirus pandemic to attack the “bad guys”; that the US National Counterintelligence and Security Centre put Wikileaks at the same threat level as jihadist organisations in its last report; or that the US special envoy for Syria admitted that Washington’s goal was to defend terrorists from Russian attacks.