Fake#5. Belarusian authority increased wages by 25%
Belarusian agriculture is growing, both in terms of production and exports, Belarusian Government reports. So the time has come to raise wages, Deputy Prime Minister Leonid Zayats said on state-run CTV air.
“We must not work in vain, but to earn, so that the result is so that people feel it.
We must raise wages. For the first two months, wages were increased by 25%. At the same time, we see that today there is lagging regarding the average value of wages across the country,” he said.
Since there is no data on the 25% wage increase on the Belstat website, it is not clear how Leonid Zayats calculated it and what region he talks about. Either rural salaries throughout the country, or only about the Grodno region, after all, the plot is dedicated to Lukashenka's visit there.
In March, the average salary in agriculture is reportedly under 1,400 rubles. This is only 80 rubles more than in January. The increase is 6% instead of 25%.
Wage growth for the year is 19%, not 25% reported by Leonid Zayats. This is in nominal terms. But in terms of real wages, taking into account inflation, it increased by 12% over the year.
In the Grodno region, the wages of the villagers have increased a little more since the beginning of the year, that is, by 8%. And taking into account inflation, this is only 6%.
Fake#4. Lithuanian tourism industry is going only thanks to the Belarusians
In the context of announcements about the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus, Oleg Gaidukevich, a member of the House of Representatives, said that a peaceful Belarus does not pose a threat to Lithuania.
And even vice versa, the tourism industry of Lithuania is going only thanks to the Belarusians.
“They think that the threat is Russia, Belarus. What threat is Belarus to Lithuania? That our tourists provided them with money? Who will go on vacation to this Klaipeda? Germans? Three Germans and a thousand Belarusians. For such prices. They think that they are Europe there,” Oleg Gaidukevich claims.
It seems that Gaidukevich does not rely on real data on Lithuanian tourism. For example, here is the data on which countries' residents spend the night in hotels in Lithuania in the second half of 2022. There are really a lot of Belarusians there, but they are far from being the majority of the guests.
The most frequent guests are Latvians and Poles. Monthly guests from these countries number 8—18 thousand people. There are also many Germans, that is, 5—15 thousand. And Belarusians are from 8 to 11 thousand.
In addition, there are many Belarusians in the capital region.
But the central and western regions of Lithuania, where the aforementioned Klaipeda belongs, are much more often visited by Estonians, Latvians, the very Germans, over whom Gaidukevich was ironic, as well as Poles.
And even Ukrainians travel there more often than Belarusians.
EU citizens usually go on vacation both to the warm seas and to different parts of Europe. But in the tourist flow of Belarus, one country prevails, this is Russia. So Gaidukevich lies that neighboring countries also depend on one larger neighbor.
Fake#3. EU joining is causing population decline in new member countries
Since relations with the European Union are getting worse, the Telegram channel ZhS Premium reports that the population in the EU countries is declining as a result of choosing the path of European integration.
“The fact is that as soon as one of the countries of the European region joined the EU, most of the progressive, hardworking, and highly qualified youth left for Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, and France.
Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia... This is an incomplete list of those countries that are cheap and affordable "food" for the monster called the "European Union".
The population of these countries has decreased by tens of percent since joining the EU. Huge numbers of young people are leaving these EU donor countries for the top-5 EU countries,” is claimed in propaganda media.
Indeed there is such a problem. But among the 28 EU members, only Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania have experienced population declines due to migration.
Over the past 20 years, the population of Bulgaria has decreased by 20%. But only 10% of them are caused by the migration of residents. The decline in the birth rate was the reason for the remaining minus 10%. The situation is similar in Lithuania and Latvia.
It is noteworthy that the migration of the population in these five countries started even before they acceded to the European Union.
Important to consider that the propagandists included Slovenia and Slovakia in this list by mistake. Their population has hardly changed. In Estonia, it decreased slightly. And in Hungary, Greece, and the Czech Republic, it even grew a little due to migration.
Otherwise, during the same period, the Belarusian population decreased by 7% mainly due to a drop in the birth rate, and without any EU membership.
Fake#2. Protesters demand Warsaw to close borders for Ukrainian refugees
After the Belarusians held the "Chernobyl Way" in Warsaw, Vilnius, and other cities, mass protests against the Ukrainization of the country took place in Poland, propagandists reported on April 27.
“In the Rzeczpospolita, there was an "anti-Bandera way". It was bright, large-scale, and much more noticeable, in contrast to the dull Warsaw rally, promoted by Svetka. "Stop the Ukrainization of Poland!" The action swept through many cities.
The protesters demanded that Warsaw close the borders for Ukrainian refugees, stop financing migrants from the budget and expel them all from the country,” says the Telegram channel ZhS Premium.
The announcement was paired with a video, that was also spread by several pro-Russian telegram channels and Polish-language Twitter accounts.
The video clearly shows the banners of a far-right political party The Confederation of the Polish Crown. On its website and social networks, there is neither announcement nor a call to come to such an action. The next protest action called for by the party takes place on May 6 and is dedicated to Poland's non-participation in the war.
We searched for the original source of the video. The investigation allows us to state with confidence that the action shown by the propagandists took place back in November 2022, and not in April 2023.
It was the March on the Independence Day of Poland on November 11, in which the Crown party took part.
According to recent polls, only 7—10% of Poles support this party. And humanitarian aid to refugees is still supported by 55% of Poland's population, Eurobarometer reports.
Let's look at our evidence, that propaganda lies. On YouTube, we found a video of this action, filmed from a slightly different angle. It took place on November 2022.
There was the same banner “Stop Ukrainization” and the poster “Not our war” above it, as well as high towers behind the backs of people. The camera captures a nearby bus with the inscription "On the Polish side". And a building with an advertisement "Apart". The location and distinctive elements are the same as those in the videos in the aforementioned telegram propaganda channels.
Fake#1. US to reconnect Russian banks to the SWIFT system, UN officials reported
Russia announces withdrawal from the grain deal with Ukraine. And as a condition, Russia demands reconnection to SWIFT for some banks turned off last year due to anti-war sanctions.
Since then, the state-run news agency BelTA and many Russian propaganda outlets have reported that the United States has agreed to Russia's demands for SWIFT.
UN officials reported that the United States decided to reconnect Russian banks to the SWIFT system, RIA Novosti reported.
Sanctions against Russia, including the shutdown of the SWIFT system, turned out to be a blow to the status of the dollar. More and more countries are losing confidence regarding the US dollar and are switching to national currency settlements.
Therefore, the United States decided to take such a step, in which the UN was involved. Thus, Russian banks plan to reconnect to the international payment system in order to fulfill the grain deal, Stéphane Dujarric, the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, said,” Belta claims.
RIA Novosti refers to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, but Dujarric did not say this.
On April 12, at the daily press briefing, he was asked about the grain deal. And here is what he literally answered, why it was impossible to export Russian grain.
“Obviously, the fact that a number of Russian financial institutions are not, if not all of them, I’m not sure, are not in the SWIFT system makes things more complicated. And we are in discussions with the people who are responsible for SWIFT and the Europeans and others on that,” Spokesman said.
In answering the question about progress on discussing this for nine months Spokesman said: “I think there’s some issues in which we have power. Very few, but this is not one of them. Secretary-General has no authority over SWIFT. He has no authority over Member States that impose unilateral sanctions. He has no authority over insurance companies, shipping companies. He can’t tell them what to do. We’re trying to herd a whole group of people. Some of them are part of trade associations. Some of them are in private sectors, Governments, European Union, and others to make sure that this MoU is implemented.”
And it's all. In his response, there was nothing about the US, nor about the fact that SWIFT would be connected. On the contrary, he even stated that the UN does not influence resolving this issue.
A curious fact is that in a few days, there was news that the US did allow one of its banks to make payments for the export of agricultural products from Russia. But only for one transaction and it doesn't mean a Russia reconnection Russia to SWIFT.
Russian outlets presented it as a major diplomatic success for Moscow. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not hide his disappointment, he criticized this decision and called it a "one-time alternative" and "frivolous approach".
Moreover, it became known from the leaked Pentagon documents that the United States considers the position of the UN Secretary-General on the grain deal too soft as if he is ready to meet the interests of Russia.
It also contradicts RIA Novosti's assertion that the US is ready to make concessions to Russia.
