BELARUSIAN INTERNAL NARRATIVES
- In August, state media continued to cultivate an image of Lukashenko as the sole leader with no alternative, whose merits are inextricably linked to the country’s achievements.
- Propagandists are attempting to rehabilitate for their audiences the term “dictatorship,” which is commonly used to describe the political regime in Belarus.
- Another objective is to strengthen the “Union State of Russia and Belarus.” Pro-government media emphasize Belarus’s pivotal role in supporting Russia and accuse the West of trying to drive a wedge between the two allies.
- At the same time, Lukashenko himself makes rather bold statements directed at Russians. On August 15, he reiterated his controversial statement that “[a] Belarusian is a Russian with a seal of quality.”
- Attacks on representatives of the Belarusian democratic forces continued, with propagandists seeking to downplay the significance and consequences of the 2020 protests. Ivan Eismont hinted that had the 2020 protests succeeded, Russia would have invaded Belarus.
THE “COLLECTIVE WEST”
- The West is portrayed as a “weakening” and “losing” part of the world.
- “Anti-sanctions policy”: sanctions imposed by the West on Russia and Belarus primarily harm the West itself.
- Belarus is contrasted as “prosperous, free, and peaceful” with a West mired in crisis.
- Another persistent anti-Western narrative in August: the West poses a “threat,” and Belarus must always be ready to deter it.
- Minsk is using the migration crisis on its borders with the European Union as part of a hybrid war against the West.
- At the end of the month, propagandists mourned Ratko Mladić, the Serbian military commander who died in prison in The Hague. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and genocide.
RUSSIA’S WAR AGAINST UKRAINE
- Propaganda efforts are focused on Ukraine. It ranks first among foreign policy topics mentioned in pro-government media.
- Justifications for Russian aggression continue. The “politician” Oleg Gaidukevich published an article titled “If the Russian Federation had not launched the Special Military Operation, the scale of the conflict would have been much larger.”
- Lukashenko himself attempts to claim he is not involved in the Russian aggression. In mid-August, he reiterated that he is not an “aggressor.”
- Propaganda attacks are primarily directed at Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is accused of having no desire to end the war.
- There is still frequent talk of the “fraternal family of Slavic peoples,” which Ukraine has abandoned and must be brought back into, voluntarily or by force.
- Another anti-Ukrainian narrative is that “Ukraine is an anti-Russian tool in the hands of the West” and that “the West unleashed the war in Ukraine to attack and weaken Russia using Ukrainians.”
- In August, Belarusian propagandists spread a fake story about food shortages in Ukraine caused by strikes on food warehouses and food processing facilities.
You can read or download the whole monitoring of Belarusian propaganda (August 2026) at this link.
Материал доступен на русском языке: «Наша самая демократическая диктатура в мире». Беларусская дезинформация и пропаганда в августе 2026
