DISINFO: The Pole’s Card is used to destabilise Belarus and segregate Belarusian citizens
SUMMARY
The Pole’s Card is a form of segregation of the Belarusian citizens into two groups: the first group has privileges in Poland and the second does not. This document is a direct violation of the Belarusian Constitution. With the help of this tool, Poland wants to divide Belarusian society and attract qualified migrants from Belarus.
In a situation of hypothetical Polish aggression, the Pole’s Card may become a legal tool for penal measures against the people who do not possess this document. There are media publications stating that Grodno should become Polish if Belarus breaks up.
Let’s be honest: all the public figures who have the Pole’s Card are the Polish instruments for destabilisation of the situation in Belarus. These people include Andrzej Poczobut, Andżelika Borys and Anna Paniszewa (arrested leaders of the Union of Poles in Belarus).
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative, mirroring the Belarus authorities, about belligerent Poland, claiming that it is plotting against Belarus and its citizens, trying to destabilise and destroy the country.
The Pole’s Card is not an element of a “hybrid war” or the “anti-state activities”, but an instrument used to support the Poles living abroad, facilitating their visits and possible migration to Poland. Contrary to the claim, Poland fully supports the independence and territorial integrity of Belarus, it does not have any territorial claims against its neighbours and it rejects any “imperial” ambitions towards other countries. Read more about the Eastern policy of Poland here.
Throughout 2021, the authorities of Belarus arrested a number of representatives of the Polish minority living in Belarus under various questionable accusations (such as “rehabilitation of Nazism” and “incitement to national hatred”). The list of arrested persons includes the leader of the Belarusian Union of Poles Andżelika Borys, a journalist Andrzej Poczobut and several teachers from local Polish schools. Read more about the situation around arrested representatives of the Polish minority living in Belarus here.
Poland and the EU appealed to the Belarusian authorities to stop political repressions and persecution against the Polish minority in Belarus.
See other cases accusing Poland of “expansionism”: Poland plans to colonise Belarus, calling this process “European integration” and the “EU Eastern Partnership”; Polish authorities are obsessed with an idea of reconstruction of a modern Polish Empire and The Pole’s Card is a part of a hybrid war and the anti-Belarusian activities.