DISINFO: The West has again ordered Belarusian opposition to take over power by force
SUMMARY
The Belarusian National Congress (BNC), chaired by opposition politician Mikalai Statkevich, is a real aggressor. It is aggressive towards the Belarusian government, president, the Kremlin, and Belarusian people. Under the cover of peaceful protests, they continue calling people to protest and to burn rubber on Maidan. Such calls will intensify on the eve of Belarusian parliamentary and presidential campaigns. They would not boycott elections as in 2015, because this time the West tasked the BNC with violent take-over of power in Belarus.
RESPONSE
This is a collection of conspiracies and ungrounded claims aimed to discredit the US and the West, Mikalai Statkevich and the democratic Belarusian opposition. This disinformation message is consistent with pro-Kremlin narratives about subservient Belarusian opposition and independent media and Western attempts to organise a colour revolution in Belarus. Mikalai Statkevich is a Belarusian politician and activist. He was a candidate at the 2010 presidential election in Belarus. After the election day crackdown, he was arrested and put in prison. On 26 May 2011, he was sentenced to 6 years in a medium-security penal colony. Amnesty International recognised him as a prisoner of conscience. The EU considered Statkevich as a political prisoner and repeatedly called on the Belarusian authorities to release him. Statkevich was released on 22 August 2015 on the presidential pardon. Since then he was repeatedly detained and faced short-term prison terms on political grounds. This disinformation case about Mikalai Statkevich is not unique. Earlier disinformation stories alleged that in 2017 Statkevich's team attempted to carry out a terrorist act during the mass protest action in Belarus and that he proclaimed a crusade against the Orthodox Church in Belarus. See also a similar recent disinformation case alleging that another Belarusian opposition leader - Andrei Sannikau - prepares a coup with US military assistance.