Information war started around the opposition in Belarus

Against the background of the persecution of journalists in Belarus itself and the obstruction of the work of the foreign press in the country, professional propagandists and amateurs fill the niche either with the "intrigues of NATO" familiar to the Russian ear, or with outright fakes. Another question is whether the home-grown "geopolitics" make their fakes from the couch out of boredom, or an information war begins around Belarus, which accompanied, for example, both Ukrainian Maidans.

This week in Live Journal appeared a noteworthy post about how the Belarusian opposition sells its homeland. The blog under the characteristic name “Zampolit ru” tells a chilling story about how “Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, in the presence of members of the coordination council of the opposition and members of the Seimas, signed an agreement “ On the restoration of historical justice between Belarus and Lithuania”, according to which the Grodno region and a number of adjacent territories return to the rule of the European state. Residents of these territories will soon receive SMS with information about obtaining a passport of a non-citizen of Lithuania".

I must say, the note was made according to all the laws of the information genre. First, a catchy headline is given - "Grodno is leaving for Lithuania." Then the stunning information is reported, as the leader of the opposition "signs the agreement." To consolidate the authors give a piece of "direct speech" of Tikhanovskaya herself, in which she "calls upon the residents of Grodno not to offer resistance and not to organize a guerrilla war against NATO soldiers". That is, NATO soldiers are automatically attached to this treaty.

What the authors of the post do not specify is who "signed" this amazing agreement from the Lithuanian side. By the way, neither on the website of Tikhanovskaya herself, nor on the official resources of Lithuania, there is no information that Lithuania will grow by Belarus. The time for posting was not chosen by chance either: on weekends, ministries in the European Union are closed, so this news can spread over the Internet without a response. At least until Monday.

Judging by the lack of hyperlinks, this news is exclusive. But the source of information is also not indicated. This is a clear violation of the laws of the genre. It is hard to imagine that the owner of the Zampolit Ru account with 176 comments and 5 likes can have such good sources in the Belarusian opposition or Lithuanian politics.

Such examples of military propaganda often use some historical facts, but not completely. Any guide to Lithuania will tell the meticulous about the emergence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and its prince Vitovta. Then the story goes down, and Tikhanovskaya "repents for the transfer of Grodno to the Byelorussian SSR to the Lithuanian people." There is a great hope that none of the readers of the Zampolita information will even get into Wikipedia. But those few who do this will find out that the lands of today's Republic of Belarus belonged between the First and Second World Wars not to Lithuania at all, but to Poland.

In this case, another Russian resource, Reporter, already in the form of an "analytical material" under the heading "Poland offered Tikhanovskaya assistance in exchange for primordially Polish territories" quotes Polish publicist Wojciech Tsejrowski, who believes that Tikhanovskaya can be helped, but for reciprocal services on expansion of Polish lands. Another commentator tweeted that Grodno should become Polish. The third said that not today or tomorrow the ruling party "Law and Justice" will announce that "in order to avoid collapse and chaos, Grodno will be returned under Polish rule." The reporter's writers also keep their eyes on the world behind the scenes, claiming that if this happens, it will be on orders from Washington. No wonder that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently visited Poland. And this set of half-truths is built on the same principle. Is there any uncertainty in Belarus? Sure. Tikhanovskaya need help? Who argues. Did Pompeo come? You will not get out.

This material was released on August 26, and four days before publication, the head of the Polish presidential administration Krzysztof Szczerski directly responded to Lukashenko's accusations and said that Poland respects the territorial integrity of Belarus and is not going to violate its sovereignty. But when did the official announcement stop conspiracy theorists? The correct answer is never.

It remains only to guess whether the authors of these resources themselves decided to show their awareness, or whether they are acting within the framework of the strategy that "NI" wrote about here. Let me remind you that the respected NYT newspaper conducted its own investigation into how the Russian state agency Ruptly and the propaganda channel RT promoted the story of the burning of bibles during the Black Lives Matter protests. Then for the stuffing was also used a little-known account, the author of which is fond of conspiracy theories and "alternative facts". The journalists reported that they found several information resources that received information from the Russian special services.

Returning to Zampolit, there is no need to say that there is no confirmation of the notorious treaty on any official Lithuanian resource.

Two of the 5 members of the Coordination Council are now in prison in Lukashenko. The Nobel laureate is under pressure from the security forces and goes to interrogations.

The European Union has not recognized Tikhanovskaya as president and is demanding re-elections, for which neither Svetlana nor her husband Sergei, who is in a Belarusian prison, intend to nominate themselves, unless, of course, it comes to elections.

For the rest, as it is sung in the Soviet song, "everything is fine, beautiful marquise".