DISINFO: Pro-Western Belarusian opposition prepares 'kill lists' and a genocide
SUMMARY
Belarusian opposition including blogger NEXTA sends questionnaires to all citizens asking to complete them. In case it succeeds with a coup d’état and bloody revolution, these “kill lists” come into play. They will include a wide range of people such as state officials and parliamentarians, all school teachers who took part in electoral campaigns, military servicemen and various law enforcement agencies’ employees, state journalists, all citizens who used to live or work in Russia or have close relatives in Russia, Orthodox believers, those who have never taken part in any opposition protest, etc. The people on “kill lists” will be announced traitors which will prevent them to get any job, pensions, or any other kind of state assistance. The pro-European new authorities will send “kill lists” people to dig trenches because a military conflict with Russia will start. A genocide of Belarusian people will start as soon as the opposition will come to power.
RESPONSE
This is a conspiracy theory and ungrounded claims aimed to discredit the West, democratic Belarusian opposition, civic activists and bloggers. This disinformation message is a modification of a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about Western attempts to organise a colour revolution in Belarus and to disrupt Belarusian-Russian relations.
In late 2019 the most popular Belarusian blogger NEXTA indeed asked his followers to complete an anonymous questionnaire concerning the blogger's content, however, it has nothing to do with the alleged collection of anyone's personal data for the so-called "kill lists".
See earlier disinformation cases alleging that the Belarusian opposition, civic activists and independent journalists make kill lists for Western security bodies, Belarusian opposition leader Andrei Sannikau prepares a coup with US military assistance and that pro-Western Belarusian opposition prepares a revolution with the assistance of armed Ukrainian nationalists.