Fake#1 Polish police beat the Belarusian activist

Fake date 3.08.2023

According to the Lukashenkо regime propaganda in Belarus, the Polish authorities prevent the return of Belarusian migrants to their homeland. Thus, on August 2, political analyst Piotr Petrovsky claimed on the air of Radio Minsk that Belarusian political activist Ilya Dobrotvor has been beaten by the Polish police.

“A friend of mine, Ilya Dobrotvor, left the country not of his own free, but because of the idiocy of his ex-wife, pardon the expression, who in 2020  somersaulted, had fun and so on,” Piotr Petrovsky said.

And the host added: “Despite the fact he was a member of the BPF Party and the head of its Minsk regional organization, he experienced democracy and human rights in Poland. He bought Voskresensky's book via the Internet and took a picture with this book in front of the Palace of Culture, a Stalinist building in the center of Warsaw. And two days later, some people came to him...

By the way, the citizens of Ukraine beat him, beat his landlord, who lives in a private house. Then the police were called, but the police refused to.

He decided to return to Belarus and asked Voskresensky to help. Voskresensky said he would help. And he wrote that “I am coming back to Belarus in a week, Yuri Voskresensky helped me.”

Two days later, the police come to him and break two ribs. And they explained: you wouldn't go anywhere, there is a criminal case against you, as turned out.”

But Ilya Dobrotvor himself nails this lie to the counter in the interview with the BIC.

“Firstly, I did not buy the book, Voskresensky gave it to me. And he obviously misrepresented it a little. He learned the fact from Facebook,”  Ilya Dobrotvor said. 

As for the beating by alleged Ukrainians, he said the following: “The fact that someone beat me is real. But this may be connected either with the Belarusian special services or with aliens — each option is viable”.

Ilya Dobrotvor has been thinking about returning to Belarus for a long time: “I really started to think about it and they probably learned it from my posts on Facebook. Therefore, Voskresensky got in contact with me. Because, roughly speaking, they [propagandists — WTF] are looking for a weak link.” 

The Polish police show attention to Ilya Dobrotovor, but no one broke his ribs. Ilya Dobrotvor confirmed it in an interview with the Weekly Top Fake project:

«They often stop for checking me and my car. And the police also came to the accommodation I lived in and conducted a search.

They behaved quite correctly, I have no complaints against the Polish police. <...> 

The police did not beat, of course.” 

The activist treated Petrovsky's statements as follows: “He took some facts and interpreted them in his favor.”

Fake#2 Russia refused to help extinguish wildfires in Greece

Fake date 28.07.2023

Russia refused to help extinguish wildfires in Greece, said Kirill Kazakov, editor-in-chief of the state-run newspaper Minsk Kurier, on the air of Radio Minsk on July 28.

“Greece's forests are on wildfire again. At the resort, there are local residents who demand to call the Russians. Because the Russians refused to. The Greeks have imposed sanctions against them, then the Russians refuse to put out the fires.

But it turns out that, of course, there is no such a stuff — aircraft, amphibious, that can do it all — in Greece itself, in NATO countries and even more in the country of, God save, America for Greece.

But in Russia, there is all that stuff. However, the Russians are under sanctions.”

Greece has not officially addressed Russia with such a request, told the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, answering a journalist.

“There were no requests from Athens for assistance. Therefore, there is no reason for me to give specific comments,” she said at a briefing on July 26.

Had such a request been made, it would've been dealt with in due course, Zakharova added.

Fake#3 Most of Africa's leaders attended the summit in Russia

Fake date 28.07.2023

The second Russia—Africa Summit was held in St. Petersburg, Russia on July 27—28. According to both editors-in-chief of the Belarusian state-run media outlets Dmitriy Zhuk and Andrey Krivosheev, the summit brought together most of the leaders of African countries.

Here is the excerpt of the propagandists’ conversation held on air on July 28: “Despite pressure from the West, most African leaders, heads of countries came to Russia, Dmitriy Zhuk says. And Andrey Krivosheev adds: “If I'm not mistaken, 47.”

Let's look at numbers. Russia invited 54 countries to the summit. Six of them did not send delegates at all. 

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova,“official delegations from 48 countries have taken part, and 27 countries were represented by first and second persons”.

Literally, 17 top officials from African countries arrived at the event. In comparison, all 54 invited African countries have sent delegations to the previous 2019 Russia—Africa summit. That time 45 heads of state and government visited Russia personally. That is much more than this time.

The statement is also being replicated that it is impossible for African countries to be at such a high level of contact with the West as with Russia.

“The Russia—Africa summit was a success and on the scale that no one in NATO could even dream of,” Maria Zakharova claimed at a briefing on August 2.

And the Belarusian propaganda echoed it. Here is what exactly was told on the air of the Editors' Club program:

“Africa has changed. As we have seen, there was recently a Russia-Africa summit. It won't be anymore, as it used to be,” said the head of Belarus 1 TV Ivan Eismont. And the Dean of the Faculty of Journalism of BSU Alexey Belyaev continued: “Have you ever seen the Europe—Africa summit?”

Andrey Krivosheev, editor-in-chief of the Minsk News agency, answered, that the French had done it. Then Ivan Eismont replied, that he has read about it in textbooks.

Actually, since 2000, EU—Africa summits have been held regularly every few years. The last one took place in 2022 in Brussels. Heads of 40 African countries attended it.

The US has also organized summits with Africa. The previous one was in 2022. The heads of state and governments of all 49 invited African countries have arrived.

And some countries have been holding summits with African states on their own. They are France, the UK, India, China and Japan. 

The author of another fake about Africa was Alexey Belyaev, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism of BSU.

«During all the previous centuries Africa had been completely cut out of world politics. It doesn't have its own representation in the UN and doesn't have the opportunity to be listened to,” said Alexey Belyaev in the same program.

However, African countries are UN members. Nowadays Gabon, Ghana and Mozambique are members of the UN Security Council. They are non-permanent members of the Security Council, elected for two years. Asia and Africa always have 5 out of 10 seats. They are necessarily gotten by some countries from these regions.

Fake#4 The Polish military increases blood stock level

Fake date 01.08.2023

The Polish military increases blood stock level, claim the authors of the Telegram channel Nevolfovich.

“The Polish Ministry of Defense boasted of a large-scale blood donation in July. Already 1010 liters! This is another fact that indirectly confirms the high losses of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine (mainly Polish)”, they reported via the channel on August 1.

A high blood stock level is needed to build up the combat potential of the Polish Armed Forces, the authors of the channel claim. Therefore, according to the propagandists, Poland is preparing for offensive action.

Nevertheless, the facts say otherwise.

In March 2021, before the war, the Polish army donated nearly 2400 liters of blood. The Polish Ministry of Defense reported, that in total, soldiers and civil servants of the Polish army have donated about 14,000 liters of blood in 2021. On average, it is about 1150 liters per month. In 2021 they donated 10200 liters — about 850 liters per month.

It's evidence of the fact that since the war in Ukraine had started, the scale of blood collection decreased.

Fake#5 They eat human flesh in the UK

Fake date 02.08.2023 

In the UK, they eat human flesh, and a cooking show host advertises it, Belarussian state propaganda claims via TV. In particular, political commentator Andrei Sych said on 2 August the following:

“For increasing the range and frills, developers sometimes violate common sense rules. Meanwhile, in the UK they began to advertise human flesh.

Gregg Wallace, the host of the British reality cooking show on Channel 4, advertises human meat for cooking. In a laboratory, human tissue is engineered into larger pieces of meat that could be used for cooking steaks, hamburgers and sausages. And packaging says: Made by humans from humans.”

The hoax 'documentary' Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat was actually on TV. But it was the latest satire masquerading as reality. The British Meat Miracle is inspired by Jonathan Swift’s 1729 essay, A Modest Proposal. The essay suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to rich gentlemen and ladies.

Mockumentary caused a stir and mixed reaction, covered in the media. 

On July 28, the program's director Tom Kingsley told BBC that the show had a very sober purpose — to “satirize the way that the misery of the cost of living has become normalized. We wanted to make the audience feel angry about how unfair our country has become, and how awful it is that we just accept this state of affairs.” 

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