In recent years, Russia has been repeatedly exposed for sowing chaos and mayhem in the West through the use of sophisticated propaganda. Only last month, France announced that its security services had uncovered a plot to spread destabilizing misinformation through a network of Russian embassies and cultural centres. Yet very few have cast an eye over the activities of Moscow’s most important strategic partner in this space: Belarus.
As Russia’s only military ally to directly engage in aggression against Ukraine, the Lukashenka regime in Belarus plays a key role in the Kremlin’s global information hybrid warfare campaign through the distribution of military propaganda. In the digital realm, Russia’s highly professionalized and military-class misinformation campaigns are implemented by Belarusian propaganda channels by using Western digital services such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Telegram.[1]
By enabling and amplifying Russian propaganda and misinformation, sanctioned individuals affiliated with the Lukashenka regime systemically abuse the terms and conditions of Western social media platforms and providers of digital services. But more importantly – they often maintain access to Western services in violation of international restrictive measures.
Despite obvious damage to democracies internationally, undermining trust in institutions and key pillars of Western society, Russia’s misinformation campaigns conducted through Belarusian propaganda outlets remain below the radars of Western law enforcement agencies and lawmakers. However, such misinformation campaigns routinely target foreign audiences in English, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, German, French, and Arabic languages through a network of online news outlets, radio broadcasters and satellite TV broadcasting. The geographic reach of these providers covers hundreds of millions of individuals in Russia, Ukraine, Western and Central Europe, the USA, Canada, the Baltic States, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.
An all-encompassing and oppressive national system of propaganda was developed in Belarus using the framework of Soviet-era state media soon after Lukashenka’s rise to power in the mid-1990s. Although funded from public sources, “state-owned media” in Belarus became a network of de-facto private TV, radio, print and digital media holdings under direct control of Aliaksandr Lukashenka and his family.
For over a quarter of a century, the apparatus of “state media” in Belarus has been used to vilify dissidents, undermine any democratic or free expression, and develop Lukashenka’s ever-present cult of personality. It has enabled strict enforcement of censorship with Reporters Without Borders ranking Belarus 157 out of 180 in the world for free press making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist. This network of ‘state media’ has also created a nearly-monopolized national education system, and a network of “ideological workers” employed at all levels of state-owned corporations, governmental institutions and agencies, as well as broad spectrum of state-funded organizations.
In the wake of political crisis that followed fraudulent and internationally condemned presidential elections of August 9, 2020 in Belarus, the Kremlin used the political instability in the country to take over its national information space and use Belarus as a platform for amplifying Russian attempts at misinformation. Between August and September 2020, Russia deployed a large group of military and civil advisors to prop up and preserve the pro-Russian regime in Minsk. One of key areas of interest for the Kremlin was the supporting the continuation of the system of Belarusian “state media” that is today used to disseminate pro-Kremlin messages to Russian-speaking audiences globally.
In the Fall of 2020, at least 32 individuals affiliated with RT and its subdivision Ruptly were deployed from Moscow to Minsk to align the narratives of Belarusian television broadcasters with Russia’s state television. By early September 2020, the process was completed and a network of Belarusian “state-owned” media aligned its disinformation narratives with Russia’s state broadcasters. Using local propaganda facilities and personnel, the Kremlin established complete control over the Belarusian information space and used the full weight of its capabilities to promote influential pro Kremlin messages to Belarusian audiences at the peak of political instability in the state.
As a part of response to the growing popularity of Telegram in Belarus, ahead and after the 2020 elections, the Lukashenka regime created a network of its own channels that were (and are) used to justify and inspire political repressions in Belarus. Since February 2022, the Kremlin weaponized Belarusian propaganda to justify mass killings of the Ukrainian population to international and domestic audiences[2] and also to disseminate military-grade misinformation campaigns and psychological operations (PSYOP) across the world.
Just like “Free Radio and Television of the Thousand Hills” played a central role in fueling the worst excesses of the Rwandan genocide, Lukashenka-controlled propaganda channels from Belarus play an important role in the justification of violence against the population of Ukraine, echoing the same Kremlin narrative and talking points – and thus should be held criminally responsible along with their Russian colleagues.
Many channels owned by sanctioned individuals are run on Telegram or Youtube, in violation of various international restrictive measures. Moreover, many propagandists employed by the Lukashenka regime are still not targeted by sanctions, and none of them yet face any criminal charges for the wrongdoings that resemble the practices of “Free Radio and Television of the Thousand Hills”.
For 2023, the regime of Aliaksandr Lukashenka assigned at least $60 million[3] to support the work of his “state media” apparatus. This sum is comparable to combined amount of all funds allocated by the EU and the U.S. Congress to support the democratic aspirations in Belarus through foreign assistance programs the same year. Or, alternatively, it is nearly half of all funds assigned by the U.S. Congress to support 27 language services of RFE/RL reporting in 23 countries across the whole Europe and Asia in 2023.
With enormous financial resources as well as technical assistance and cross-promotion from the Kremlin, the system of Belarusian propaganda is showing exponential increase in views on YouTube. In April 2022, SB.BY became the first propaganda outlet from Belarus to ever become the most popular Belarusian YouTube channel (by views). A year later, all top-5 (by views) YouTube channels affiliated with Belarus were filled exclusively by Belarusian channels involved in dissemination of pro-Kremlin’s military propaganda: SB TV, BelTA, CTVBY, ATN, and ONT.
This increase has a direct correlation with the preparation and commencement of the war and the kind of content posted by Belarusian “state media” aligns squarely with that originally created by Russia’s government agencies or propaganda projects. Simultaneously, the Russian audience of Belarusian “state television” channels on YouTube grew from nearly 20% in early 2022 to over 50% in April 2023.[4] According to the Baltic Internet Policy Initiative, it is the first time in the history of YouTube when channels of Belarusian propaganda took over five out of five top positions in Belarusian segment of this social network. And this tendency is increasingly concerning in the light of growing misinformation efforts against the EU and the United States.
In May 2022, the head of the National State Television and Radio Company of Belarus (“Belteleradiocompany”) Ivan Eismant[5] (a husband of Lukashenka’s press officer Natallia Eismant[6]) announced his plans to transform Belteleradiocompany (in particular, its satellite TV service Belarus 24) into the Belarusian version of Russia Today, introducing satellite TV broadcasting in English, German, and Spanish languages to target European and American audiences and disseminate its materials globally through the Internet.
Although this initiative may require additional financial resources and personnel, such a project (once implemented) may become an attractive platform for the Kremlin to circumvent and spread misinformation internationally in the light of restrictions against Russia Today across the EU and in the United States. There is recognition and understanding in the West that both Lukashenka and Putin (as well as the relevant officials and soldiers from Belarus and Russia) must face justice for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide. However, it is important to ensure that the workers of Belarusian and Russian propaganda face justice, as well. But before this happens, the Western decision makers should make sure that the Kremlin’s military propaganda disseminated by Lukashenka-related platforms faces zero tolerance policy internationally from governments and corporates alike, and that individuals affiliated with such propaganda outlets from Belarus are targeted and impacted by relevant restrictive measures.
[1] Instant messaging service incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and headquartered in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
[2] It is also widely used to target the populations inside Belarus and Russia to justify invasion in Ukraine and shape public opinions in the Kremlin’s interest.
[3] The actual amount of funds available to Belarusian “state media” is even bigger due to advertising revenues and the so-called “advertising tax” in the amount of 10 to 20 percent that is applied to all advertising in the territory of Belarus with funds transferred directly to Lukashenka-controlled propaganda outlets.
[4] Similarly, Telegram channels affiliated with Lukashenka regime gained impressive rise in audience from Russia after the administrators of Russia-based Telegram channels – including RT – started to cross-promote the content created by Belarusian propagandists and state security organizations – including Belarusian political police GUBAZiK (GUBOPiK).
[5] Ivan Eismant is sanctioned by the EU, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway and the Baltic countries.
[6] Natallia Eismant is sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom, the EU, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Ukraine, New Zealand, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Albania.
Author: CEF Belarus team – For the safety of our researchers and their family, we sometimes omit their name.
Date of publication: July 18, 2023