THE INFORMATION DEFENSE OF BREST FORTRESS: BELARUSIAN PROTESTS IN RUSSIAN AND POLISH MEDIA

Iurii MELNYK, PhD*
Delfina ERTANOWSKA, MA**

Abstract. The article considers and compares the Belarusian protests from the point of view of the Russian and Polish media spaces, as an aspect of the information war between Russia and the West. The areas of discussion between Russia and Poland (as the West’s main representative in Belarus) are the fairness of the Belarusian protest, the Lukashenko’s legitimacy, the role of Western governments in the Belarusian protests and their consequences for Russia. The post-election crisis showed all the absurdity of the archaic nature of the Lukashenko regime. This disclosure is clearly visible in the Polish media and less clearly in the Russian ones, contrary to the intentions of the latter.

Keywords: Belarus, post-election protests, Russian propaganda, Polish media sphere

THE RELEVANCE OF RESEARCH

On the night of the presidential elections in Belarus, which took place on August 9, 2020, the street protests and other manifestations of disobedience to the Lukashenko’s regime began in this country, which continue to this day. It happened so, that as a result of these events Belarus became a point of conflict between the interests of the collective West, which supports the Belarusian protest, and Russia, which supports Lukashenko.

Russia is a clear example of a reactionary state that seeks to defend the status quo both on the territory of the former USSR and beyond. In the context of political instability in Belarus, Russia not only supports Lukashenko economically and politically, but also defends his regime with significant information resources. The Belarusian protests are one of the fundamental issues on the agenda of the Russian media, which has dominated the Belarusian information space for decades. When Belarusian state media outlets disobeyed the regime and began to show solidarity with the protesters in one way or another, the Lukashenko regime replaced them with Russian specialists (see Alexander Volvachev’s article[1]).

Naturally, Belarus’ immediate western neighbors are most active in supporting the protests. First of all it’s Poland, which today is the main stronghold for the Belarusian opposition. The main information resources of the protest, from Belsat TV to Nexta telegram channel, are based in Poland. Protests in Belarus, which have been going on for several weeks, are widely commented on by the Polish mainstream media. The Polish government is showing similar concern, for two important reasons, first, because Belarus is one of Poland’s largest neighbors, which has a direct impact on the sense of national security; secondly, in this country lives about 40% of the population with Polish roots, which is one of the largest Polish minorities outside the country. If the revolution in Belarus succeeds, this country will have a chance to embark on the path of democratization and integration into Euro-Atlantic structures, and this is what the other Central and Eastern European countries are primarily interested in.

Thus, the purpose of the article is to single out informational messages related to the Belarusian protests in the media of Russia and Poland, to compare and contrast them, obtaining a holistic picture of the information war for Belarus between Russia and the West.

THE MAIN MESSAGES OF POLISH AND RUSSIAN MEDIA

The Belarusian protests: fair or not?

New reports on mass protests in Minsk, Grodno, Gomel and other smaller towns are presented daily in the Polish media space. Young, educated and exceptionally peaceful protesters – this is how we can briefly describe the image of social protests in Belarus. Unfortunately, brutally pacified by the regime services of Lukashenka^[2]. In the first phase, men were pacified, however, when in defense of their relatives, thousands of marches of women dressed in white^[3], took to the streets of the whole country – the authorities also decided to dispose them. Oko.press, an independent observation portal in Poland summarizes the August events as a women’s rebellion^[4]. Brutal beatings, mistreatment of older women^[5], blast grenades and shots^[6] over the past few weeks have been intensifying the brutality of Lukashenko’s services. Prominent activists and people of science and culture are also persecuted, we read that The Nobel Prize winner is fleeing the country^[7] – Sviatlana Alieksijevič fearing for her own safety, decided to live in Germany. Another media report is the news that the husband of the opposition leader’s Svitlana Cichanouska – Siarhei will remain in custody for at least the next two months^[8]. That shortly we can describe of all the news and media reports on Belarus from the Polish mainstream media from the last months.

The coverage of Belarusian events in the Russian media is mainly limited to showing the protesters as “completely criminals” and “experienced provocateurs”[9]. It is the protesters, according to their interpretation of the situation, who are the initiators of the aggression, not the security forces, as it appears in Western sources. “The demonstrators blocked traffic, in places rushed at the security forces, and then played catch-up with them”[10], as the correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda writes.

If there are reports of the use of force by Belarusian law enforcement agencies, the overall picture is certainly complemented by the context in which the protesters were the first to resort to violence. For example, a Radio Sputnik news item entitled “Minsk police used gas against protesters” said that “one of the protesters blocked the movement of an official car and «behaved defiantly» while trying to open the car door”[11]. According to the NTV presenter, “the law enforcement officers tried to peacefully suppress the riots”, but they failed to do this, then “water cannons, stun grenades and pepper gas were used”[12].

According to the Russian interpretation, the protesters are not supported by all other, “normal” Belarusians: “According to the scenario dictated the day before by the known Polish telegram channels, the girls were supposed to come out in bright clothes and sequins… – Loafers, go to work! – people on the roadside urged to the walking girls”[13]. The voice of the people is heard in another report: “- Girls, well, you took a walk one time, well, second, third … I also went, but maybe that’s enough already? – the woman persuaded the protesters”[14]. In addition, the Russian media do not allow to forget that there is another side in Belarus, namely – Lukashenko’s supporters, who also hold their actions and are not inferior in quantity to the protesters[15].

Belarusians in the Polish media appear as peaceful demonstrators, but they delighted contemporary Poles with their steadfastness. Czesław Mroczek said that the actions of Belarusians should be viewed with admiration[16]. This stoicism and fortitude reminds Polish society of the events from 1989, that is why all the disturbing events in Belarus are presented in such a positive and meticulous way in Polish primetime TV stations like TVN, POLSAT and TVP.

Instead, the Russian media is full of irony about the revolutionaries: “The most stupid protest march took place in Minsk. After singing for four hours around the city, the columns dispersed to their homes”[17]. The sketch by the Russian presenter Tigran Keosayan, full of vulgar humor, which offered a shameful image of the Belarusian activist, became infamous. Later, the actress Ekaterina Shmakova, who played a “Belarusian oppositionist” in this program, published a video in which she apologized and expressed regret about her participation in the NTV program[18].

Lukashenko: Legitimate or not?

Ruling Belarus continuously for 26 years, Alexander Lukashenko has been always seen in Poland as an authoritarian dictator with a peculiar sense of humor. Until 2020, most of the information presented in Poland about him concerned extravagant gifts given to other heads of state (like 4 sacks of potatoes to Putin). From time to time, there was information about the arrests of opposition activists and their release after obtaining subsidies, either from the EU or Russia. His presidency seems a bit like the leadership of Saparmurat Niyazov from Turkmenistan, who, after the collapse of the USSR, for 20 years invented new titles for himself such as Turkmenbasha Türkmenbaşy, the ruler of the Turkmen. Nizajov’s adoration of himself and his family (the statue of Themis at the Ministry of Integrity had the face of his mother[19]) reminds Lukashenko’s adoration of Little Prince Kola, whose fabulous life we can see in Instagram under the nickname nikolay.lukashenko[20]. Today, he is also presented as an unviable warlord who lost his sense of reality, as exemplified by his statements that poisoning of Navalny was a fraud[21]. Indeed, Lukashenko at the beginning of his career after the collapse of the USSR lifted Belarus from the bottom of the economy, but as the years went on, the power depraved him. Today he tells what Tom Phillips defines as motivated reasoning[22], which means, believing in untruths only because you want to believe it yourself. His visits to Putin and his “complains” about the bad Western world are not unnoticed in Polish media, it’s a bit like a scene from The Godfather, in which a stray lamb, who acted recklessly in this role, runs to Don Putin and begs for help. In return he gets the famous: “These are the troubles I can’t help you with”[23]. However, the strict father first rebukes and then kindly supports his devoted little one[24] financially and through human resources (journalists, TV operators, etc.).

Since the beginning of the post-election protests, Russian television convinced viewers of the “unconditional” victory of Alexander Lukashenko, while alternative exit polls did not inspire confidence[25]. The Western countries have not recognized Luka-shenko as a legitimately elected president? “But what will really change after this «non-recognition»?”, Komsomolskaya Pravda asks[26]. The Russia Today Deutsch calls Luka-shenko “Belarusian President”, noting that he had taken office “despite international protests”, as if these protests were a more serious factor than the internal Belarusian protests[27]. Reporting on the situation in Belarus, Russian media debunk the “myth” about the Tikhanovskaya’s victory in the election[28], refer to the official Belarusian sources, according to which, in the presidential election “the current head of state, Alexander Lukashenko, won”, having received 80.1% of the votes[29].

The role of Western states: constructive or destructive?

From the information of the Polish Press Agency we can conclude that: the European Union reacted late to the post-election protests in Belarus. Nevertheless, EU leaders are trying to build a relatively common image and position on the events in Minsk. This is the picture presented by all major information portals in Poland, like for example: TVN24, Onet.pl, Wirtualna Polska and O2. The Polish government actively strove in the EU arena to deal with the Belarusian issue, there was even a meeting of leaders, the offer by the government of Mateusz Morawiecki to impose EU sanctions on the activists of the Belarusian state apparatus, failed due to the veto of Cyprus, largely inhabited by Russian oligarchs. TVN24 reports that the head of Polish diplomacy, Zbigniew Rau, stated that if the European Union does not impose sanctions on Belarus, the neighboring countries may consider introducing national sanctions[30]. However, the Baltic states decided to overtake everyone and imposed a sanction on 129 Belarusian officials and Lukashenka himself[31]. Bielsat also reports that Ukraine will cease to recognize Alexander Lukashenko as a valid president as of November 5[32]. In the Polish media space, we meet with a fairly unanimous approach of the EU and Ukrainian leaders towards the events in Belarus. However, it is worth mentioning the words of Ryszard Kapuściński that world and international organizations are losing importance, despite their growing bureaucracy[33]. The Union’s reaction was late, it is just weak, it kind of condemns violence and unconstitutional elections, but has no idea how to solve this problem, there is even no idea of a firm response. Among the leaders seeking help for Belarus, we can only see the firm and adamant positions of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine, which not so long ago has gone through Maidan itself.

According to Russia’s interpretation, the West cannot offer Belarus anything but empty promises[34] and sanctions. However, sanctions by the Baltic states could result in symmetrical measures on the Belarus side: “If Lukashenko fulfills his promise, Lithuania will face an imminent economic collapse, and after it the economy of the entire region will «crumble»”[35].

According to the Russian point of view, the Belarusian protesters are only pawns in the hands of the real actors in this story, who control the processes from abroad with the help of telegram channels: “We perfectly understood that these were only avatar figures. Well, that is, more serious people are behind this project, a huge team that works on this project”[36].

According to Russian media, the Western countries should not interfere in Belarusian internal affairs. This position was expressed, among others, by RT Deutsch: “The US must abstain from all forms of direct or covert influence, and the EU should not extend its sad – and completely failed – sanctions policy to Belarus. Above all, how-ever, it should not spend funds for Belarusian civil society, which as a poisoned gift under the given conditions can only result in a form of geopolitical interference. The people in Belarus are also able to help themselves without external missionaries!”[37].

The role of Poland, the lessons of Ukraine, the consequences for Russia

The most important element of the Polish role in supporting Belarusians in the fight for a new, more democratic state is government and diplomatic support, a shelter to opposition activists expelled from the country, handing over of the new seat for the Belarusian House, or the project “Solidarity with Belarus”, i.e. financial aid of PLN 50 million for the repressed Belarusians[38]. The second pillar are information and media. The largest Polish media investment in the history of Poland – Belarus relations was the launch of Belsat Белсат television in 2007, the foreign channel of Polish Television, which broadcasts in Belarusian and Russian. It is the only independent from Lukashenko television in Belarus, and from the very beginning of its broadcasting it was met with hostility by the Belarusian authorities. In 2020, this reluctance turned into active violence and aggression, all the time we are informed about beatings, detentions of journalists and Bielsat associates[39], similar situations take place with bloggers and journalists of the Nasha Niva newspaper, for example the disappearance of Eduard Palczys[40]. Polish Radio also broadcasts news programs on the current situation in Belarus in Belarusian, 3 times a day, there is a clear resemblance to Radio Free Europe from 30 years ago. On September 27, there was also a concert of “Solidarity with Belarus” at the PGE National Stadium in Warsaw[41], where Prime Minister Morawiecki said that “We are here to be with them on this bumpy road to freedom”, in order to provide moral and spiritual support to Belarusian protesters. Zmicjer Wajciusz-kiewicz also recorded a Belarusian version of the famous song of Solidarity Mury – Муры[42], which for the second time in its history became the anthem of the post-communist peoples fighting for democracy. From the beginning of the protests, more than 50 days, the media are considered the main enemy of the “Belarusian order”, everything from shutting down the internet to intimidating and kidnapping journalists has been tried. In the Polish mainstream, Lukashenko appears to be an enemy of the media, television, but in particular social media and independent blogs – because they allow for independent information, protest planning or free expression of opinion.

The Russian media abounds in parallels between the current events in Belarus and the Ukrainian Maidan. The Ukrainian example is most often cited as a warning to Belarusians. The subtitle of the article on Lenta.ru asks: “Will Belarus repeat the fate of Ukraine?”[43]. The title in Komsomolskaya Pravda: “The Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov: What will happen to Belarus if the revolution wins? There will be a poor, evil, anti-Russian country”[44].

On the Belarusian television, with the arrival of Russian journalists, there are more and more parallels with Ukraine: Maidan, the division of Belarus, the ban on the Russian language, the events in Odessa on May 2, 2014, when “the nationalists burned people because those people wanted to speak Russian, because they wanted stability”[45].

An illustrative article of this plan is the material in Gazeta.ru: “The example of Ukraine is too illustrative. The industry collapsed. The hopes for her recovery are ex-tremely illusory. In general, Ukrainian agricultural products are not so needed in the European Union – they would have to support their own farmers. The debts worth tens of billions of dollars. A significant part of the country’s population is working abroad. The humiliating demands of the IMF in relation to the implementation of reforms, which, against the background of growing corruption, result in an increase in the utility bills for the bulk of the population. As a consequence, there are political instability, permanent expectation of a social explosion, the eternal anticipation of a new revolution. The growth of crime and extremism, including the national one. Finally, the realization of its own uselessness for the West… Do Belarusians really want such a future?”[46]

If Belarus seeks to avoid a catastrophe, it should avoid Ukrainian mistakes and rely on Russia.

More and more voices appear in Minsk that are in tune with this thought: “Without Russia, Belarus will simply collapse”[47]. Russian columnist Dmitry Olshansky believes that if Russia does not unite with Belarus, the Belarusians will become enemies of Russia: “Therefore, if we do not unite, then there will be no neutrality: the border will be closed, the Russian language will be officially abolished and slowly become obsolete, and people will be told from childhood that Russia is a branch of hell on Earth, against which, by the way, the partisans fought in the 1940s”[48]. Such scenarios look more and more realistic given that the West has refused to recognize the Lukashenko’s regime.

Even being positively disposed towards Lukashenko, the West still would not have anything to offer him, – “except for the worthless guarantees in case of his resig-nation, which he clearly does not intend to do. Moscow, on the other hand, has a wider range of instruments in the form of economic and political assistance, but it is not known whether it will be possible to use them effectively”[49].

CONCLUSIONS

1) The Russian propaganda machine is a highly hierarchical, fully regime-controlled structure that, since the beginning of the protests in Belarus, has offered a fairly clear and unanimous interpretation. The Polish media are not at all as homogeneous and generally show much more independence in their judgments, but in covering the protests in Belarus they have shown the same unanimity as the Russian ones. In this article the counter-system information resources in both countries, which tend to offer an alternative view of events, were not taken into account.

2) The main issues surrounding the information war between Russia and Poland (as the West’s main representative in Belarus) are the fairness of the Belarusian protest, the Lukashenko’s legitimacy, the role of Western governments in the Belarusian protests and the reflections on their consequences for Russia.

3) The image of Belarus bathed in post-election protests presented in the Polish mass media can be summed up as a conflict of young educated citizens versus a rigid dictator who strenuously clings to power and whose worst enemies are the neighboring countries with the exception of Russia. The Russian media have seen the protests in Belarus primarily as an attack by Western powers against Russia (since there is no need to distinguish between Russia and Belarus). Hundreds of thousands of Belarusian citizens on the streets of Belarusian cities are seen either as implementers of foreign plans for regime change in Belarus, or as deceived naive people, who do not know their own interests.

4) The last 28 years Belarus have given the impression of an isolated, undiscovered country, for the majority of recipients in Poland it was a symbol of Russia’s little brother headed by an eccentric leader. Because of the protests, the interest in Belarusian affairs and in the culture and life of this society has increased. To quote Tom Phillips, “One of the problems with a democratic form of government is that policies that seem reasonable in a time of relaxed and friendly liberal democracy, often bounces a terrible hiccup when a more authoritarian regime comes to the fore”[50]. In Belarus we have an example of a country, in which the post-election crisis showed all the absurdity of the archaic nature of the Luka-shenko regime. This disclosure is clearly visible in the Polish media and less clearly in the Russian ones, contrary to the intentions of the latter.

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* PhD in social communication, associate professor of the Department of Foreign Press and Information, The Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine

** Master of Journalism and Social Communication, University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow, Poland, independent journalist, Poland

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