Top-5 Fake News. Akropolis Mall went Bankrupt in Vilnius; & and The World's First Newborn Heart Surgery was Performed in Belarus

Experiencing the lack of Russian tourists, the shopping center on the Russian-Finnish border went bankrupt, Oleg Gaidukevich, a member of the pro-Lukashenko parliament in Belarus, said on the TV channel's Belarus 1 program “Editors Club” on December 2. According to him, the same fate befell the largest shopping center in Lithuania:

“They sell the Finnish center for pennies, it went bankrupt. It's the same with the “Akropolis” in Vilnius. I read this today. Who was it built for? For us,” Oleg Gaidukevich claimed. 

Then Ivan Eismont, head of the Belteleradiocompany, said in reply: “This is a symbol of Belarusian opposition fighters and European happiness. I have even visited this paradise once”. 

“Could you imagine the mugs of the sellers?! In recent years, who has been going there at all?” Gaidukevich stated.

In fact, Akropolis Group reported an increase in rental income by 31% and profits by 26% at the end of 2022. The company is growing and plans to open a second shopping center in the Lithuanian capital.

On December 13, 2023, reporting the news about the successes of Belarusian healthcare, the BelTA news agency used a quote from Aleksandr Lukashenko, which he said 4 years ago:

“Just last month, our surgeons, one might say, performed a miracle. They performed surgery on a premature baby on the sixth day after his birth. His weight is a little over a kilogram. It was heart surgery. There was nothing like it in the world because for such an operation the baby should weigh, in my opinion, 2.5—3 kg”.

In 2019, Belarusian surgeons operated to correct a congenital heart defect in a child weighing 1.135 kg. It was a rare operation, but not the first in the world.

A year earlier, in 2018, Ukrainian cardiac surgeons operated on the heart of a child weighing about one kilogram.

In 2017, a newborn weighing 1,300 grams was saved by pioneering surgery in Spain, and a baby weighing less than 500 grams was successfully operated on in India the same year. Even earlier, in 2011, a child in India who weighed 580 grams underwent heart surgery.

Several thousand cars and trucks lined up at the Belarusian border with Lithuania and Poland in December 2023. The state-run Belarusian TV channel CTV reported that the reason was the increasing number of those willing to come to Belarus for shopping.

“Prices for bus tickets from Poland to Belarus increased 2—3 times before the New Year holidays. This is due to the demand for Belarusian visa-free travel. This year, over 36 thousand Poles were received at the Brest border crossing. This is almost double last year's figure. And now the residents of Poland are not afraid of both purchases with the mark BY and the systematic threats of their government to close the border,” the news reported on December, 12.

Actually, the bus ticket rush is since both citizens of Poland and Belarusians living abroad travel to Belarus for Christmas and New Year.

According to 2022 data from the Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus, 22 thousand Poles visited the country without a visa. And in 2023 — nearly 40 thousand.

Since the Belarusian authorities introduced visa-free travel for Polish citizens on July 1, 2022, therefore, 22 thousand is the number of people who arrived in six months.

Thus, the number of Poles coming to Belarus decreased by 10% in annual terms.

Historic ties between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Principality of Moscow were discussed by both political scientist Petr Petrovsky and leading Belarusian propagandist Grigory Azarenok in the program “Azarenok. Napryamuyu” on December 13. Here is what their conversation looked like:

“Actually, Lithuania, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, is Rus', Lithuanian Rus'. They just took and contrasted this Rus' with Moscow Rus', although the daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytaut was...” Petrovsky said. 

And propagandist Azarenok continued: “...The wife of Alexander Nevsky.”

“She was the wife not of Alexander Nevsky, but of Moscow Prince Vasily the Dark, and today her grave is in the Holy Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin,” Petrovsky claimed.

The daughter of Prince Vytaut Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Sofia, could not marry Alexander Nevsky. She was born more than a hundred years after his death.

She was not the wife of Moscow Prince Vasily the Dark as well. Vasily the Second Dark was her son. Sofia was the wife of Vasily the First.

Alexander Lukashenko flew to China on December 4, where he had a meeting with the head of the People's Republic of China. Alexander Lukashenko flew to China on December 4, where he had a meeting with the head of the People's Republic of China. Although the planned duration of the meeting with Xi Jinping was 1 hour, it lasted 3 hours.

Discussing this news on the TV channel’s Belarus 1 program “Editor’s Club” on December 9, both MP Oleg Gaidukevich and the head of Belteleradiocompany Ivan Eismont claimed that the Chinese chairman has completely different relationships with  European leaders:

“Do you think it is so easy to meet with the leader of China? Many European leaders cannot meet him,” Oleg Gaidukevich said.

“And I’ll [interrupt] you for 30 seconds... The leader of the PRC spent less than an hour with the German Chancellor and they did not shake hands. He talked with Macron for half an hour. And he did not talk at all with Ursula von der Leyen,” Ivan Eismont continued.

The recent meeting between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Xi Jinping lasted about two hours. It took place in November 2022, when strict anti-Covid restrictions were still in effect in China. That is why both leaders of China and Germany avoided shaking hands.

The visit of the President of France to Beijing took place in April 2023. Then Xi Jinping spent two days with Emmanuel Macron.

One-and-a-half-hour meeting took place on the first day. The informal meeting in Guangzhou province and a joint dinner — on the second day.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with the head of the People's Republic of China twice this year. The first time was in April when she flew there with Macron. The second was on December 7, when The 24th EU-China summit was held in China.

The fact that the third “One Belt, One Road” forum was held in October in Beijing for the first time without Lukashenko’s participation was kept silent by Oleg Gaidukevich and Ivan Eismont.

In June, while congratulating Xi Jinping on his birthday, Lukashenko said that he was ready to come to this event. Then in September, Foreign Minister ща Belarus Sergei Aleinik announced that the country's leadership planned to take part in the Beijing conference. Despite all of that, Belarus was not invited.