Top-5 Fake News. Ukrainians Beat up Russian-speaking Woman in Tallinn; Polish Authorities Ban Film about Belarus-Poland Migration Crisis

On September 22, Alexander Lukashenko held a meeting on agricultural issues.

Belarus has already broken last year's food export record, Belarussian propagandist and political scientist Vadim Elfimov stated, commenting on that news on the air of the state media outlet Radio Minsk.

“The President cited the figure, that last year our agriculture brought $8 billion profit to the country. This year it seems to be the same. Over the past eight months, we have also earned 8. That is, apparently, at the end of the year, we will have more,” he claimed on September 22.

In fact, at the meeting, Lukashenko said, in particular, the following: “Last year the country earned over $8 billion from food export. And over eight months of this year — more than four billion.”

While Sergei Bartosh, the Minister of Agriculture and Food, cited more modest export results. According to first-half 2023 results, Belarus exported agricultural products worth $3.6 billion, he said in an interview with the magazine Economy of Belarus.

In Estonia, teenagers from Ukraine have beaten a woman for speaking Russian, Belarussian propagandist and political scientist Vadim Elfimov claimed on the air of the Evening Political Channel program on September 25.

“I would like the editor to show one terrible picture now… In Tallinn, a Russian-speaking woman was beaten by passing Ukrainian teens, scumbags, I can’t call it anything else... Because she spoke Russian on the phone. Moreover, they have filmed that terrible process on video and then posted it,” he said.

However, in the video shown, there is no evidence that the attackers were Ukrainians. We don’t hear Ukrainian speech: young people swear in Russian with an accent. Russian media called them Tallinn or Estonian teenagers. The Estonian press reported, citing the local police, that the officers had arrested a 20-year-old Estonian citizen.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky visited Canada on September 22. And 98-year-old veteran of the Waffen-SS Galicia division Yaroslav Gunko was invited to the meeting with Zelensky in the Canadian Parliament. The Division is under suspicion of committing war crimes against Poles and Jews during World War II.

Honoring the Ukrainian veteran caused a scandal and the resignation of the Speaker of the Canadian Parliament. 

Thus, on September 26, Russian propagandist Vladimir Soloviev published via his Telegram channel a postage stamp photograph, which, according to him, was issued in Ukraine in honor of Yaroslav Gunko.

“The vile story of honoring Gunko, who served in the SS division, was continued in Ukraine. Ukraine's national post issued the stamp in his honor. Recall this story when once again there will be chest-thumping by Kyiv, boasting that there is no Nazism in Ukraine”, Vladimir Soloviev said in his post.

Ukraine's national post has no stamps with the image of Gunko in its Thematic plan.

In September, the organization issued only the following postage stamps: the stamps with Easter eggs from Odesa, Volyn and Chernivtsi regions, also the postal block Cities of Heroes. Kharkiv region, and, finally, the philatelic newsletter Weapons of Victory. World with Ukraine.

Last, in reply to the Weekly Top Fake team's request, Ukraine's national post confirmed that the stamp wasn’t among those officially issued in the country.

Polish consular offices in Asian and African countries issued some 250 thousand work visas for bribes, Polish media reported in an investigation, published in September 2023. So the 'visa scandal' has broken out.

Polish law enforcement officers have started a criminal investigation. Some of the senior diplomats lost their posts. And regarding that news, the Belarusian state-run  TV channel STV stated, that Poland is on its way to being expelled from the EU.

“Poland may have to leave the EU. European Parliament Members from Germany have appealed to the European Commission with a request to consider the issue of its continued membership in the EU. The reason was a high-profile visa scandal that flared because Warsaw authorities were known to issue work visas to foreigners in exchange for bribes.<...>

MPs consider Poland's visa fraud a hybrid attack on the EU. In this regard, they asked the European Commission to evaluate the possibility of applying Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union, which involves the [procedure of] excluding a state from the EU,”  propagandists told in the news on September 27.

Indeed, Dr. Gunnar Beck, an MEP for the populist Alternative for Germany party, sent a request to the European Commission on September 19. In particular, he asks if the Commission believes “that the fraudulent issuance of visas by the official authorities of an EU Member State constitutes a hybrid attack. And if so, what action will it undertake to investigate and punish the politicians and officials responsible… including, if need be, through proceedings under Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union?”

Actually, Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union doesn’t include a description of the procedure for excluding an EU member state from the union.

It only states that if a member country violates the fundamental values ​​of the European Union, the European Council can initiate proceedings against it. 

As a result, a conclusion can be made, that in fact the state member is seriously and persistently violating European values, which causes a suspension of certain rights of that EU member, including the right to vote.

There is no provision for a country to be excluded from the EU. EU documentation doesn’t specify such a procedure. Only the voluntary withdrawal of a member country from the union is possible.

Agnieszka Holland’s film ‘Green Border’ about migrants, trying to cross the Belarusian-Polish border illegally, was released in Poland.

Getting worried before the elections, Polish authorities canceled the film showing in cinemas, Lyudmila Gladkaya, an employee of the Belarusian propaganda newspaper SB.Belarus Segodnya, said. 

“The premiere of Holland's film was announced for the end of the year, in time for the parliamentary elections in Poland. But ‘Green Border’ disappeared from film distribution. Well, as expected,” Gladkaya claimed on the TV channel Belarus 1 on September 26.

Polish media reported only that the film 'Green Border' was removed from the poster in one of the cinemas in the city of Otwock. 

Local authorities assured that it is not related to politics but to the theater rehearsals taking place there. However, in the updated repertoire, the time in which Holland’s film was supposed to be shown, was taken up by another film.

According to the Polish cinema chain Cinema City, now the movie is shown without restrictions in other cities in Poland.

The drama 'Green Border' became the No. 1 box office film among Polish films over the first weekend after its release — about 140 thousand people watched it.

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