In Q2 2025, Belarusan propaganda returned to its roots: America is no longer a friend, Trump is a disappointment. But Russia and China remain loyal allies. And inside the country they are looking for a “national idea”, building a cult of personality. These and other key trends — in the quarterly analytical review.
KEY THESES:
Belarus
- There is a noticeable trend towards strengthening ideological work and, in general, increasing the role of propaganda in the country.
- The cult of personality of Lukashenka continues to be strengthened in order to further mobilize society around the “single leader of the nation.”
- Alliance with Russia is presented as a strategic partnership capable of ensuring the political regime’s long and trouble-free existence. At the same time, Lukashenka more and more often speaks out in favor of the coexistence of Belarus and Russia as two independent states.
- The rapprochement with China is presented in propaganda narratives as an incredible foreign policy success of Lukashenka, who has demonstrated the failure of any “attempts by the West to isolate Belarus.”
- Propaganda continues to view Belarus’s democratic forces and free civil society as the main threat to the regime’s security.
Ukraine
- The pro-government media continues to be full of hostile rhetoric towards Ukraine.
- To justify Putin’s aggression, propaganda shifts the blame for starting the war from the aggressor to the victim and promotes the myth of “Slavic brotherhood.”
- Pro-government channels continue to justify the Belarusian regime for the deportation of Ukrainian children to Belarus.
- At the same time, “peaceful” statements are increasingly being made, Ukrainians are being called “brotherly people,” and the state media is issuing indecisive calls for peace talks.
The “Collective West”
- The West remains among Belarus’s main enemies who seek to weaken and ultimately take the country over.
- Trump: in the past three months, from April to June, propaganda’s rhetoric towards the new U.S. President started to change from enthusiasm and euphoria to the exact opposite one.
Материал доступен на русском языке: Разочарование Трампом. Основные нарративы беларусской и российской пропаганды, направленной на Беларусь, во втором квартале 2025 года
