Disinformation is at the heart of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime. The illegitimate president of Belarus has been clinging to power based on a lie that he won the presidential election in August 2020. He forcibly landed a commercial flight with over 120 passengers to detain a dissident journalist using a fake bomb threat as a pretext. Belarusian state-controlled media, propped up by pro-Kremlin “media specialists,” is engaged in an all-encompassing disinformation campaign to justify and fuel violence against Belarusian citizens and silence any dissenting voices.
Since the outbreak of anti-Lukashenka protests in August 2020, EUvsDisinfo collected over 450 examples of pro-government and pro-Kremlin disinformation about Belarus, illustrating just the tip of the iceberg of the state-controlled (dis)information machine.
Here is a summary of EU vs Disinfo’s findings.
You can find the PDF version on the EU vs Disinfo website.
Further reading:
- Belarus kidnapping: what international law says about capture of dissident journalist Roman Protasevich
- The year that changed Belarus: where Lukashenka’s regime stands after a year of protests
- After gutting independent media, Lukashenka regime comes after human rights activists
- How Alyaksandr Lukashenka stole the Belarus presidential election
- Policeman who fled Belarus: Lukashenka’s siloviki brainwashed into supporting the regime
- The Lukashenka regime outlaws “unsanctioned” rallies, doubles down on media repressions
