The Russian disinformation device continues its efforts to represent Poland as a “provocateur” and “aggressor”. Moscow’s attention this time has been concentrated on actions involving the intimidation of Russians and Belarusians with the imagination of Poland’s “impending attack” on the Belarusian state. It is worth noting that in the perception of Russians and Belarusians, the “Polish attack” on Belarus effectively means declaring war on Russia as well. From this standpoint, Poland is simply a country that is supposedly planning to ignite planet War III.
In this ongoing disinformation stream, Russian media centres (in collaboration with Belarusian ones) are attempting to exploit all informational origin to manipulate and strengthen the discussed message. This way, the Minister of National Defence’s announcement regarding the establishment of a fresh military formation was used, as well as information about preparations for the parade on the occasion of the Polish Armed Forces Day. In the falsified imagination of reality crafted by Minsk and Moscow, all 1 of these events serves as “evidence” of Warsaw’s “aggressive intentions”. On the 1 hand, Minister Mariusz Błaszczak’s message is expected to indicate another phase of Poland’s “preparations” for an attack. On the another hand, the preparations for the military parade are meant to “conceal the actual intent of the troop movement” – which is the deployment of the army across the border, from where Polish soldiers are expected to launch an attack on Belarus.
In addition to the mentioned key direction of constructing messages, Russians effort to refresh topics regarding the alleged “Polish Russophobia” and allegedly “raging spy mania in Poland”. In a peculiar context, the Russians have included, among others, communication about the arrest of citizens of the Russian Federation in connection with the pasting of stickers featuring the logo of the alleged “Wagner Group”, which were likely part of operations aimed at instigating panic in Poland (as part of actions related to the presence of the alleged “Wagnerites” in Belarus).
In a broad sense, Poland is portrayed by Moscow and Minsk as an “extremely aggressive” state, “responsible for escalating tensions in the region”, a “country persecuting Russians”, an “oppressive” and “militaristic” country, as well as 1 “generating problems and stimulating conflicts”. Against the demonised Poland, Russia appears as a country “loving peace”, “defending itself” and “fighting for rights, democracy and freedom”. The actions of Moscow’s disinformation apparatus, however, are not limited to shaping specified an image of Poland solely to accomplish informational goals regarding the Russian-speaking space. Russian sources and pro-Russian propagandists cooperating or sympathising with the Kremlin infect the information space of another countries with data messages (actions with global reach). The portrayal of Poland in a highly negative light is combined with the image of NATO and the USA, resulting in the depreciation of the full Western image. We can, therefore, anticipate that as tensions increase in Africa, the Russians will proceed to blame the West for these phenomena. In order to illustrate the “demonic character” of the USA and NATO, as an example of “aggressive actions by the West” against Russia, they will mention to the “dreadful Poland” – which has become a threat to planet peace as a consequence of “being a puppet of the USA”. Thus, it is highly probable that informational attacks on Poland, aimed at portraying our nation as an “aggressor” and “provocateur”, will intensify in the upcoming months.
Author: dr Michał Marek
Public task financed by the Ministry of abroad Affairs of the Republic of Poland within thegrant comp etition “Public Diplomacy 2023”
Fot. Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej
