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Belarus-Russian media skirmish
This weekend the main Russian mass media organized a massive attack on Aliaksandr Lukashenka. They alleged, that he unilaterally annulled all recent “oil agreements” with Russia. Paval Liogki, the spokesman of the Belarusian president called these statements “a provocation, which is aimed at the destabilization of the bilateral [Belarus-Russian] relations”. Now the Belarusian mass media stage a counter-attack, dismantling the previous allegations of the Russian media.
Aliaksandr Klaskouski, the well-known Belarusian journalist, who is also blogging for Nasha Niva, discovered the origin of the conflict. During his last meeting in the Belarusian town Navapolatsk, which also hosts one of the two major Belarusian refineries, Lukashenka said that in case the Russian oil companies set the groundlessly high prices for oil, they will be forced to pay extra duties for transporting their oil through the Belarusian territory to Europe. In this context, Aliaksandr Lukashenka told the journalists the following:
“if they [the Russian side] tell us, like, “we will make you pay high duties for the tractors, laundry washers, TV-sets, etc. [exported from Belarus to Russia] – then we know how to make those, who ask such things, pay high duties themselves”. (quotation - the state-owned Belarusian news agency BELTA).
Two days later, a correspondent of the major Russian news agency ITAR-TASS wired this sentence:
“we will make you pay high duties for the tractors, laundry washers, TV-sets, etc.”, said the Belarusian president”.
As you see, the quotation is turned into the opposite of its own. Nevertheless, it gave a start to the massive media campaign, mentioned above.
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As you sow, so you shall mow
Lukashenka mows what he had sown. The Russian media is treating him the way the Belarusian media is treating the opposition – twisting the facts and altering the quotations on a national level. The recent fierce attacks of Lukashenka against the “Kremlin imperialists” are being met with fire of the powerful Russian propaganda machine.
While condemning Lukashenka as an “agreement-breaker” this weekend, the Russian 1st TV channel (which broadcasts nation-wide and under the strict Kremlin control) showed parts of the documentary films “Ploshcha” (“The Square”) and “The Common President” by Yury Khashtchawatski, the well-known dissident Belarusian film director. The Russian audience was presented with the scenes of violent repressions against the protesting opposition in Minsk and with Lukashenka publicly singing the praises to the Hitler Regime in his interview to the German newspaper “Handelsblatt”.
What do we learn from this weekend’s Belarus-Russian media skirmish?
First, the major Russian media are no less as unscrupulous, state-manipulated and mendacious, as their Belarusian “colleagues”. They are ready to appeal to democratic values (like showing the films of the dissident director) while manipulating the facts (as shown in the example of the Lukashenka quotation). Unfolding a whole media campaign based on a single falsified sentence is an example of how manipulated they are.
Second, the aim of such a manipulation is damaging the image of Lukashenka and his regime in the eyes of the Russian population. Considering the influence of the Russian media machine, by the end of this year the president of the “brother country” will turn into the oil-thirsty, unbalanced and untrustworthy caricature of himself.
Third, what has been called the Belarus-Russian “oil conflict” sees no end, and it definitely goes beyond oil issues.
