DISINFO: The UK is behind attempts to destabilise Belarus ahead of the elections
SUMMARY
Opponents are trying to destabilise the situation in Belarus ahead of the presidential election. Their goal is to disrupt the elections and at least influence the elections results. The British special services are playing the leading role in such activities. Some Polish, Ukrainian and Lithuanian actors are subordinate to them.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about supposed Western attempts to organise a colour revolution in Belarus.
The UK and EU member states perceive the situation in Belarus in a unanimous way, appealing to the Belarusian authorities to stop violence, release political prisoners and organise democratic elections in Belarus. See an overview of the EU's policy towards Belarus here.
The presidential elections in Belarus took place on 26 January 2025. On 29 October 2024, the Statement on the so-called 2025 Presidential election in Belarus on behalf of the Bureau of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Belarus said, “We stress that elections held in the current atmosphere of fear and repression, and in conditions that are contrary to all internationally recognised standards, with no possibility for Belarusians living abroad to exercise their right to vote and stand as a candidate in the election, with no transparent system for counting of votes and without the participation of international observers, cannot be considered as fair and free".
See also the 26 January 2025 statement by the High Representative / Vice President Kaja Kallas and Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos which states:
”Today's sham election in Belarus has been neither free, nor fair. The people of Belarus deserve a real say in who governs their country."
See also our article Lukashenka’s so-called ‘presidential election’ in Belarus.
In 2020, Belarus’s ruler Aleksandr Lukashenka falsified the results of the presidential elections and started an unprecedented wave of violent political repressions against peaceful citizens. In 2021, Lukashenka orchestrated the migration crisis on the EU's border, which has been used as a political and hybrid weapon. Since 2022, the Lukashenka regime has been involved in large-scale military assistance to the aggressive Russian actions in Ukraine.
See earlier disinformation cases claiming that Poland and Lithuania directly sponsor extremist actions against Belarus, that Warsaw wants to organise a Maidan during the upcoming Belarusian 2025 elections, that Poland wants to seize western Belarus during the upcoming presidential election, and that the CIA, and Pentagon prepares Belarusian protestors in Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states.