Belarus’ defiant attitude towards the emergence of COVID-19 has caught the world’s attention. While most other European countries, including Russia, introduced strict lockdowns, Belarus has remained open. Unlike Russia, Belarus held the Victory Day parade on May 9, rebelliously avoiding social distancing. This provoked Russian media to act, and as a result, Minsk and Moscow have been involved in a rather harsh exchange on Russian coverage of Belarus’ way of handling the outbreak.
Virus for Dollars
One of the disinformation narratives, which has spread through several media outlets, includes a claim that the Belarusian opposition is deliberately trying to spread the virus, following instructions from the West. This claim was first noticed on EUvsDisinfo database on February 18. Since then, it has been repeated several times. For example, the US Secretary of State presents “infected syringes” to the Belarusian opposition as instructed by Soros (March 23); The opposition plans to organize the genocide of the Belarusian people (April 16). The claim was also noted this week, according to which the Belarusian opposition is following European instructions to spread the virus. They accuse the opposition of bribing them to allegedly receive one US dollar for each newly infected citizen in Belarus. According to their “logic”, with the current number of cases of infected with COVID-19 in Belarus, it would be over 30,000 dollars!
Globally, rumors surrounding COVID-19 have mutated in recent months since the outbreak. Initial claims that the virus was designed to target exclusively Asians have disappeared as the infection has spread across Europe, the United States and Russia. It has also become impossible to claim that Russia and other “closed societies” are better suited to cope with the disease than democratic states. But attacks on the Belarusian opposition are surprisingly persistent. The same votes appear to be endemic to Belarusian media.
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Source: EUvsDisinfo
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