Lukashenko retakes control of the media, plays the "enemy at the gate" card

Lukashenko retakes control of the media, plays the
A 28-year-old passionate football fan, Mikita Kraucou, disappeared on August 12 as clashes with the OMON riot police began in earnest. His body was found dead in a forest a few days later / wiki
By Ben Aris in Berlin August 23, 2020

Another missing Belarus protester was found dead in a forest in the Partyzanski district of Minsk over the weekend. He was the fourth protester to die in the current uprising against Belarus' self-appointed President Alexander Lukashenko, who massively falsified the presidential election vote on August 9.

The 28-year-old passionate football fan, Mikita Kraucou, disappeared on August 12 as clashes with the OMON riot police began in earnest. His body bears the signs of a severe beating, according to reports, denied by the police, who have refused to show his body to his family.

After a brief respite once the crowds overwhelmed the security forces last week, Belarus’ security services and riot police have returned to the streets of Minsk in the last few days and the intimidation of the protesters has restarted.

Lukashenko has recaptured control of the state TV thanks to a team of Russian journalists flown in from Moscow – a fact the incumbent admitted over the weekend – and the national broadcaster is pumping out a relentless stream of lies and disinformation to try to muddy the water and sow dissent amongst the population, united in their opposition to Lukashenko.

The menu of stories is straight out of the Kremlin’s playbook, which has many years of experience of undermining popular protest. Lukashenko’s campaign has gone from floundering to a slick and well-co-ordinated campaign following his three-hour meeting with an unidentified senior FSB official on August 19, who flew into Minsk on the plane belonging to the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov.

The campaign consists of three main elements: NATO is moving troops up to the Polish border and will invade; the protestors are going to ban the use of the Russian language and split the Belarusian Orthodox Church off from the Russian patriarchy; and the EU and the USA are funding the opposition movement, which also contains fascist elements.

Lukashenko keeps adding random elements in his rambling rants on TV as he tries to create an atmosphere of a national emergency that only he can solve. More recently he added that the country will collapse if he is not president and be ravished by the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic. As bne IntelliNews has reported, the country has already been ravished by the coronavirus because Lukashenko failed to take any action to prevent the spread of the illness in the first place.

All of these elements are demonstrable lies but they are intended to appeal to the minority of Belarusians’ that still support Lukashenko, especially those that work for the security services.

Military manoeuvres

 

Lukashenko donned his military uniform over the weekend and has put the army on full alert because the government had seen that NATO troops in Poland were “seriously stirring” near the Belarusian border.

Dressed in military fatigues, Lukashenka visited the Hoza military training area in Hrodna region on the border of Lithuania and Poland where he told a military unit that Belarus's army must "protect the territorial integrity of our country," adding "military support is evident." Lukashenko has ordered the full-scale mobilisation of troops in Hrodna and Brest regions in the north-west of the country and large-scale military exercises are being organised.

NATO said in a statement countering Lukashenko’s accusations: “Any claims about a NATO build-up on the border with Belarus are baseless. NATO poses no threat to Belarus or any other country and has no military build-up in the region.”

“Our posture is strictly defensive. We remain vigilant, ready to deter any aggression and defend our Allies. We call on Minsk to demonstrate full respect for fundamental rights,” the organisation said.

Lukashenko’s accusations were widely derided by other EU leaders.

"The regime is trying to divert attention from Belarus's internal problems at any cost with totally baseless statements about imaginary external threats," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told AFP.

Faux Press

Lukashenko admitted that about nine media professionals had been flown in from Moscow to restart the state TV broadcaster, which is now pumping out pro-Lukashenko propaganda.

The state TV is reporting on NATO troop movements on the Polish border and general supporting the government’s line that the country is under the threat of imminent attack.

Likewise, the biggest newspapers have effectively been muzzled after several titles reported that they were unable to print because the printing presses had mysteriously “broken down.”

The newspapers have on the whole been pro-state, but several editors have come out for the opposition since the mass protests started and run extremely embarrassing (for the regime) front pages, highlighting the violence of the police and the falsification of the vote count.

And Lukashenko is flatly denying the riot police hurt anyone during the protests following the election.

"You know those people on the internet. 60% showed some bruises. 60% of them are staged shots. One day we'll tell and show you everything. Today is not the time," Lukashenko said.

Lukashenko's denials came as footage smuggled out of the notorious jail on Okrestina Street in Minsk showed prison guards brutally beating detainees kneeling helpless in the courtyard that only backs up countless reports of maltreatment by detainees in the prisons. Some 50 people remain missing, feared dead, according to local NGOs.

“Recently, we saw a story about a girl from Hrodna, who was allegedly beaten by riot police and the whole country was crying! The country cried for five days about the “riot police scoundrels”. And what turned out to be the truth? Well, thanks to the father, who found courage and honestly said: no riot police beat us up. We got into a car accident. Thank him very much, he is a brave man,” the President said during a rally in Hrodna on August 22.

The story he is referring to caused national outrage after a 5-year-old girl was injured and had to be hospitalised after a police car rammed her parents' car. The picture of the bloodied little girl was held up by many at subsequent protest meetings.

 

Lukashenko said the media is “part of a hybrid war” against Belarus. “I’ve just told them: you have Saturday and Sunday to think. Let them not be offended starting from Monday. Authorities must be authorities,” he added. Most of the liberal press and sources like RFE/RL, which has been actively reporting the Belarusian uprising, were blocked again on August 20 ahead of the weekend. All the VPN services that Belarusians use to dodge the blackout have also been blocked.

Lukashenko also warned the people not to demonstrate over the weekend, saying the security services would identify anyone who participates. “We have lists of them. We need to identify them.” The population ignored him and descended on Minsk, where at least 250,000 people crowded into Independence Square and surrounding streets in massive show of defiance (see related story).

The president also emphasised he has Russia’s backing: “Putin and I have agreed on the opinion: we are being poisoned here to later switch to Russia. This is a springboard, and we must destroy it. This is our common opinion with President Putin.”

Death and falsifications

But the story is becoming blacker as the death toll creeps up and Lukashenko’s rhetoric becomes increasingly unhinged. Kraucou’s death follows on from the death of Kanstantsin Shyshmakou, who was the commissioner of the Military Museum polling station and released the actual voting results that showed former English teacher and nominal victor in Belarus’ presidential election Svetlana Tikhanovskaya winning by a landslide. His death has had a sobering effect on the other rebel commissioners.

Shyshmakou was found dead in a river two days after he disappeared. It is not clear what happened to him. He told his mother that he had been sacked from his job and the local press reported that he probably committed suicide. At the funeral on August 20 none of his family and loved ones would comment on the tragedy to the local press who attended.

But his death has had a chilling effect on the other commissioners, who had been collecting information on the vote falsification, work which has now stopped. The Central Election Commission (CEC) has reportedly burnt all the ballot papers it had, making a recount impossible. The documentation of the falsification being conducted by the rebel commissioners was crucial to legally establishing Lukashenko’s illegitimacy.

The newly established Co-ordinating Council also filed a formal complaint with the Constitutional Court, including dozens of fat folders containing “ample evidence” of vote fraud, according to the committee members.

During the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2008-09 a similar complaint was filed by the eventual president Viktor Yushchenko with the Constitutional Court in Kyiv, which ruled the elections won by Viktor Yanukovych were invalid and turned the tide in the protesters' battle against the incumbent powers.

Belarus’ Co-ordinating Council is hoping for a similar result, but Lukashenko has a much tighter hold over all of Belarus’ institutions and the court is not expected to rule against the incumbent.

Propaganda campaign

Lukashenko has staged a remarkable comeback in the last few days. His nadir was a visit to the MZKT truck factory on August 17 to speak to workers that previously formed his base. Instead he faced an angry crowd that shouted him down with chants of “Ukhodi!”, which translates as “get out” or “resign.” Lukashenko looked confused and fiddled nervously with his suit buttons. He quickly left for his helicopter that took him back to Minsk saying: “I have said everything. You can continue to chant “Get out”,” and abruptly walked away from the lectern.

That was the same day as Bortnikov’s plane arrived in the Belarusian capital in the evening. The next day the state began a much better organised and increasingly effective counter-initiative.

There has been an increase in pro-government counter-demonstrations, which are better organised than the fiasco on the weekend of August 16, when the state bussed in some 5,000 participants from the regions, only to see the opposition bring 200,000 or more demonstrators to Independence Square a few hours later.

However, these pro-government demonstrations are still populated largely by workers cowed into attending with the threat of losing their jobs, and soldiers, according to reports. In one clip posted on social media the pro-government “demonstrators” were shown returning to their barracks, carrying posters and the green and red national flag after the protest was over.

It remains unclear exactly who Lukashenko’s media campaign is trying to reach. He does and has always commanded a loyal following thanks to the stability he brought in the worst of the economic crisis during the 1990s, but his brutish tactics have managed to alienate many of his traditional supporters and a very large part of the population. At this point it looks simply like a justification for his attempt to quell the uprising using brute force.

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