Korshunova: Belarus under the clutches of Russia and under the power of Lukashenko’s propaganda

Belarusian journalist Arina Korshunova points out that Belarus is completely “occupied” by Russia and that the country is under a harsh dictatorship with around 1,500 political prisoners. In an interview with The Geopost, she describes a daily situation of arrests and persecution in Belarus.

Korshunova believes that Russia sees Belarus as a country under its control and uses it to attack Ukraine and other countries, including Poland and Lithuania. It mentions the presence of Russian troops in Belarus and direct Russian influence on the Belarusian military and administration.

Belarusian propaganda, according to Korshunova, is stronger than the Russian one and has been active for 30 years under Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. She points to the complete absence of independent media and non-governmental organizations in Belarus, describing an atmosphere of fear where people are forced to support Lukashenko or leave the country.

Korshunova, who now lives in Ukraine, describes the challenges facing Belarusians who oppose Lukashenko’s regime and support Ukraine. It points to the difficulty of proving loyalty to Ukraine on the part of Belarusians and the feeling of guilt for Belarus’s involvement in Russian aggression.

Full interview:

The Geopost: Could you tell us about situation in Belarus in the middle of Russian aggression in Ukraine?

Belarus is fully occupied by Russia, it’s my opinion. Belarus is fully in dictatorship and it’s occupied by Russia. For now, in Belarus are 1,500 political prisoners and we can understand how much is it, if we know that the population of Belarus is 9 million now and it’s less and less with every day because people are escaping from Belarus because of politics, because of the detaining with every day.

So, if we, for example, will open the most famous portal about human rights in Belarus, Spring 96, we’ll find out that every day in Belarus we have new arrests, new searches, new detainees, new convictions, new prison terms, and so on, so on. So, I think the situation is bad in Belarus now.

The Geopost: We always talk how Russia uses other proxies to attack other countries, like in the case using Belarus. How come that Putin is using Belarus to attack Ukraine and other states?

I think that Putin understands Belarus like his own country. Like Belarus is not post-colonial country, it’s colonial now and it’s easy to use Belarus to attack other countries. For example, I understand why Poland and Lithuania they’re in fear of it because it’s very easy to use Belarus. Lukashenko has no power and he knows it. And also, we have Russian troops everywhere. Why I am saying that Belarus is occupied? Because we have Russian troops in our military units, because we have their generals as our heads of departments, as our ministries. So why not? It’s really a super simple thing to use Belarus as a place to attack from.

The Geopost: If we talk about disinformation and propaganda, who is developing Russian propaganda in your state, in Belarus?

It’s interesting question, because I think that Belorussian propaganda is stronger than Russian propaganda, because Lukashenko lives as a president for 30 years now, and all the system, all the government, all the propaganda, all the state is working for him for 30 years now, like not as many as for Putin, for example. And it’s more powerful than Russian propaganda because it’s pushed a lot, because we have no independent media in the country, have no independent journalists in the country. Okay, we have independent journalists, but they are political prisoners. So, we have no independent journalism at all, we have no NGOs in Belarus now. And it has a really massive pressure on us. Russian propaganda is only part of Belarusian propaganda in Belarus now, because, it’s really powerful.

If we will look at Russian propaganda, I think it’s cleverer than Belarusian, because they still have independent medias in Russia and there are not so many political prisoners, people are more relaxed in Russia. In Belarus, people live in fear and propaganda is only thing that they have to live their usual life because you have only two ways, you support Lukashenko or you need to leave the country.

The Geopost: You live now in Ukraine, how do you see Russian aggression in Ukraine in cooperation with Belarus?

It’s painful question because after the start of big war where Belarus is also like a terrorist state, but every day Belarusians need to prove that there are people of honor here. Every day here when I meet new people, I need to let them understand that I am against Lukashenko, I am against Putin, I support Ukraine and so on. All of our military volunteers, we have here a Belarusian unit, they also need to show themselves, we need to work better and better with media to show that Belarusians support Ukraine, or Belarusians trying to support Ukraine if Ukraine wants it. And I think that it will be years and years and years to ask for apologize from Ukraine and I live in Ukraine because I want to support it, I want to make videos from Ukraine I want to show for Belarusians in Poland or Lithuania, how is it to live in Ukraine. I want to ask them for support, for donations. So, every part of my work as a media journalist, which can help Ukraine. But I think that it’s a real problem for Belarusians. And we don’t know what’s the next step of Putin, will he use Belarus again for attack? We’re not sure and we can’t be sure. Everyone who tried to resist, maybe you heard about train partisans, they tried to make explosions on the roads, on the railways, they are in prison now with their criminal cases and in Belarus we still have death punishment. I think that in this situation, the best variant to help and to show your resistance and support is to live in Ukraine because if you live in Belarus, you can’t do anything really. Government controls literally everything and if you want to show your support and your solidarity, just live here and help.

/The Geopost