We investigate corruption, uncover fake news and analyze the news agenda. The BIC is a member of the global network of investigative journalists.
Our journalists have received theHans Staiger Investigative Award from the International Center for Journalists; the Free Media Award from the ZEIT-Stiftung Bucerius and the Fritt Ord Foundation; and the Data Journalism Award from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Our Dubai Unlocked project was also shortlisted for the Sigma Awards.
Between 2018 and 2026, our journalists received 11 Belarusian Volnaye Slova Awards.
BIC is a member of the OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project)
We are also members of GIJN (Global Investigative Journalism Network)
Lukashenko tamed the raging crowd in 2020, did he? The WTF team made Azarenok's statement fact-check
The Weekly Top Fake team found a video on YouTube, filmed at MZKT on the day of Lukashenko’s visit to the plant in 2020.
The leading propagandist of the Lukashenko regime, Grigory Azarenok, said that in August 2020, Lukashenko tamed the raging crowd by coming nearly without security to a meeting with MZKT workers.
Weekly Top Fake journalists found an archived video and counted his bodyguards.
Recently, TV presenter Grigory Azarenok visited the Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant (MZKT) as a representative of his colleague, candidate for deputy Evgeniy Pustovoy.
Talking about this event on Radio Minsk on February 14, he recalled how Aleksandr Lukashenko was booed there after the elections in August 2020. According to his version of the story, Lukashenko came there with almost no bodyguards.
“Amazing story, really. The strategic enterprise. Also, again, there is something to compare with. Because this is the very legendary place that the president visited in 2020, when he alone had tamed the crowd, alone.
The crowd shouted, raged and screamed. We saw this shoot showing the president was already in a wet shirt but with his strength, charisma... There was one security guard there, in my opinion, and our journalists, Zhenya Pustovoy,” he said.
The Weekly Top Fake team found a video on YouTube, filmed at MZKT on the day of Lukashenko’s visit to the plant in 2020. It shows how Lukashenko, surrounded by at least five security guards, approached the crowd. Moreover, probably not all of Lukashenko’s bodyguards were spotted by camera.
For Belarus, he cited the share of people earning below the subsistence minimum, while for neighboring countries, he used an indicator based on different criteria.
