DISINFO: Tsikhanouskaya’s trip to Germany shows that Merkel is her handler (and Navalny's)
SUMMARY
Traitors to the homeland are called to come to Germany, all expenses included. Angela Merkel is a very hospitable woman: she hosted migrants from the Middle East and Africa, received Russian blogger Alexei Navalny and met Belarusian traitor Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich. Tsikhanouskaya openly says that Merkel is the reason for her to come to Germany. Nobody had any doubt about who was actually giving orders to Tsikhanouskaya , but showing her relationship with her handlers in such a direct way is revealing. The US sponsors Merkel’s tutoring of Russian and Belarusian traitors. It is a costume of the West to exaggerate things for its own goals and cover up for traitors from other countries. This year, Germany showed exactly this stance.
RESPONSE
Recurrent disinformation narrative against Belarusian opposition members Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Svetlana Aleksievich and Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, accusing them of being puppets of the West. Contrary to the claim, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya is not handled by German chancellor Angela Merkel nor by any foreign power but is the leader of a wide, grass-root Belarusian democratic movement, as is the case of Navalny in Russia. By attacking them, pro-Kremlin disinformation aims to discredit the whole opposition movement, both in Belarus and in Russia. This story appeared in a context of Russia’s growing irritation with the reaction of Germany and the EU to the poisoning of Navalny and its rejection of Belarus’ fraudulent election, which led to sanctions against top Russian and Belarusian officials. See other examples of these disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya is controlled by Lithuanian puppeteers; that the US is introducing extremists in the protests in Belarus; that the Navalny case is being used to foil the Nord Stream 2 pipeline; that Navalny’s poisoning is probably a self-promoting project; or that Angela Merkel resents Russia only because she didn’t receive the Nobel Peace Prize.