As a consequence of the violation of the Polish airspace by 2 Belarusian helicopters, the Belarusian and Russian sides have focused their disinformation activities on utilizing this issue to strengthen their erstwhile activities in the information field. Judging by way of communication, it is highly likely that the given event was a planned provocation, which fits into the context of influence operations that have been conducted against Poland for many months.
In this peculiar context, the narratives from Minsk and Moscow have been centred around a fewer misleading directions.
Firstly, the given event was presented as a “Polish invention”, suggesting that we are dealing with a “Polish provocation”. The given action aimed at whitewashing the image of Minsk by denying the fact Belarusian military helicopters entered the airspace of a neighbouring country.
Secondly, the event was presented as “Polish fake news” serving Warsaw’s agenda, which will be utilized by the Polish government to justify the request to “militarise” east Poland. The narration reduces the given event to the component of “Polish disinformation activities” aimed at covering up and justifying allegedly ongoing preparations for an attack on Belarus (the substance concerns, among another things, the communicative about Poland’s plans to provoke a war with Russia).
Thirdly, the discussed event was placed in the context of activities aimed at intimidating Poles with the spectre of an attack from the mythologised “Wagnerites”. For this purpose, sources related to the abroad Intelligence Service of the Fed. Russian sources have published materials confirming the appearance of Belarusian helicopters in Polish airspace,emphasising that the event was related to exercises involving the alleged “Wagner Group”. This was a form of proposition that the members of the mentioned Russian structure (de facto subordinate to Moscow – created as independent from the Russian state authorities) fulfilled their promises regarding the invasion of the territory of the Republic of Poland. It is worth mentioning here that in this way, the Russians negated the previously mentioned narratives (however, this communicative was not circulated by key/leading Russian media – possibly its goal was to penetrate the Polish infosphere alternatively than to influence Russians).
In the general image of reality shaped by Minsk and Moscow, the discussed event served as “evidence” of Warsaw’s aggressive actions and was an “example” of the “disinformation character” of Polish state institutions. In the distorted imagination of reality created by the Russians and Belarusians, Poland one more time revealed its “true” face through the “preparation of provocations” and the “unfounded accusation” of Belarus of hostile intentions. Misinformation campaigns related to the discussed event are framed within the context of portraying Poland as a threat to Belarus and the organization liable for escalating tensions in the region.
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. Getty Images via Money.pl
