Top 3 persons who were most often caught lying in 2023
Third place goes to… Alexey Avdonin
Polish concentration camp, located in the Belarusian town of Biaroza-Kartuzskaja, was the first in Europe, Alexey Avdonin, an analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, claimed in September.
“The first concentration camp on the territory of Europe appeared in the area of Belarus, in the Brest region even before the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. It was established in Kartuz-Biaroza, or Biaroza-Kartuzskaja, the location was called differently.
There was the very first concentration camp organized by the Pilsudski regime against political prisoners and those who waged their underground struggle and were charged in case №133,” Alexey Avdonin said.
The Biaroza-Kartuzskaja concentration camp was established in June 1934. At that time the very first European Nazi camp had already existed in Dachau for a year.
Then in October, Alexey Avdoninin claimed on the air of state-run “Alfa Radio”, that Belarus had held the Firewood chopping championship to help the Poles in the fight against the “frost genocide”.
“We started chopping wood to help them. We bring this firewood to the border and citizens since we have a visa-free regime, citizens of neighboring countries can come and take this firewood and stock it up before the winter.<…> We see that the event is scaling. Therefore, there will be even more help to our neighbors,” the propagandist said.
The chopped firewood was not taken to the border with Poland but was presented to lonely Belarusian seniors from the Minsk region.
Second place goes to… Ivan Eismont
In January 2023, the head of the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company Ivan Eismont claimed on the TV channel “Belarus 1”, that Lukashenko’s statements about the return of Belarusians, who were previously forced to leave their homeland, were at Google's top.
“I want to tell you that there are those who are willing. Because Google Trends says that Lukashenko’s statement about the return of fugitives has surpassed all of the topics in ratings. According to Google Trends statistics — not ours, but the U.S. Google Trends — the search query “Lukashenko” shows simply frantic surfing from neighboring countries. It was at the top of search queries in Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine. The interest in this topic was absolute — 100%. This means that all Google search queries from the country were only about Lukashenko at the moment,” he stated.
To say the truth, the “weather” was googled more often, than “Lukashenko” on that very day and other days as well.
In October, Eismont claimed, that the ancestors of Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, had fled from Ukraine to America to escape Bandera’s men.
“Ironically, I had never known, that, as I understand it correctly, it was a discovery for everyone, that Blinken, who now backs Bandera’s supporters, his grandfather and great-grandfather fled from those very Bandera’s men so as not to be stabbed with pitchforks. That's what's going on,” Eismont claimed.
The U.S. Secretary of State's relatives relocated to America in 1904. Stepan Bandera did not yet exist at that time — he was born in 1909.
First place goes to... Grigory Azarenok
In October, the leading Belarussian propagandist Grigory Azarenok accused the former Ukrainian Defense Minister of buying a €7 million house in France.
“And now the former Minister of Defense is boasting. It's impossible to call him neither a Minister nor a Defense Minister... He's nobody at all, he's a worm. He boasts that he bought his daughter a mansion. He would have to work for 230 years to buy that house for his salary. Already calculated,” the propagandist claimed in the program “Azarenok. Napryamuyu”.
The villa that Azarenok spoke about had been on sale at the time of the broadcast’s release. The announcement was published on the Christie's International Real Estate website.
In response to the Weekly Top Fake team request, the Agency said, that the information about this villa bought by Alexei Reznikov's daughter was fake.
The next fake. Dental prosthetics in Belarus are free, Grigory Azarenok said in November. The top Belarussian propagandist voiced a viewer comment in his program: “In Germany, two implants, teeth, are 1,500 euros. If you want, do it, or chew without teeth.”
Then the guest of the program Ksenia Lebedeva, who is the host of the propaganda TV channel “Belarus 1”, suggested in response: “Come to Belarus, we have cheaper implants.”
Following her statement, Azarenok said: “Belarus — yes. So if you go to a public clinic, you can do it for free.”
In Belarus, a dental implant placement into a patient's gum is carried out only on a paid basis. Its cost ranges from €550 to €800 per tooth.
And the last fake is about “enemies of the people”. Azarenok has also stated that, unlike the fascists, he did not declare anyone enemies.
“Fascism, Nazism is based on the fact that there are some enemies. They are declared. Either internal enemies, i.e. Jews or someone else, or external ones, i.e. Poles, Estonians, or someone else. We do not declare anyone enemies,” he said on December 19.
However, previously the propagandist repeatedly stated, that Belarus had many enemies.
“There is nothing hidden anymore, go and look at it. And eliminate your enemies. Look at the Western bastards,” he said on February 19.
Talking to political scientist Pyotr Petrovsky on July 25, he declared all people with liberal views enemies of the people.
“You are liberals. And your nationality is liberalism. You are traitors to the motherland. That’s it,” Petrovsky said.
Then Azarenok agreed with him: “Enemies of the people, absolutely”.
Azarenok also pointed to enemies later, after his statement that it was characteristic of the Nazis, but not of the current Belarusian regime.
“Informants, snitches, pederasts, liberals. These are the ones who now live in Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, enemies of the people, not citizens of the Republic of Belarus,” he claimed on December 20.
Top 3 the most dishonest media of 2023
Third place goes to... “ZhS Premium”
In February, the Telegram channel ZhS Premium reported that the former Prime Minister of Latvia, Vilis Kristopans, who had become a pensioner, was freezing in his apartment with utilities for 1,400 euros a month. But ZhS Premium kept silent about the fact that the area of the ex-Prime Minister’s house was 1524 square meters.
Later in September, ZhS Premium posted the faked photo showing Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with American billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
In fact, the original photo depicts Soros with North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2019.
Second place goes to... ONT
In January, the state-run TV channel ONT reported that Belarus became 62nd in the Global Innovation ranking.
“Both domestic science and innovative practices occupy a worthy place in world rankings. I would especially like to note the following indicator — the Global Innovation Index. In 2021, Belarus ranked 62nd among 132 countries,”, economic analyst Georgy Grits said.
At the time of the broadcast's release, this data was out of date. According to the 2022 ranking, published in October, Belarus was in 77th place.
In September, ONT exaggerated the German Foreign Minister's spending on beauty:
“...Annalena Baerbock..., who, according to German media, spends 9 thousand euros from the budget daily on the services of makeup artists and stylists. Means, this is local taxpayers’ money”.
In their report, ONT referred to fake news from a fake website posing itself as the German media Bild. While the real Bild reported spending €9 thousand per month, not per day.
First place goes to... TV “Belarus 1”
In March, the TV channel “Belarus 1” reported that Ukrainian veterans were outraged by the demolition of monuments.
“I fought, I was lying in blood ... my arm was torn off, there were two holes in my head ... my leg ... tell me, what did I fight for, Comrade Colonel ?!” the elderly man on crutches told in the news story.
The video was filmed in October 2014. It shows the veteran who complains not about the demolition of monuments, but that the state did not provide him with a flat.
Later in June, TV “Belarus 1” reported that the British were indignant by awarding Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya the Tipperary Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in Europe, which is given to politicians and officials for their contribution to peace and the promotion of human rights.
“All this obscurantism would've remained just pics for reports to grant givers, just another small award. If not for one nuance. The ordinary residents of the UK and Russian-speaking users of social networks were terribly outraged by the fact,” the host of propaganda media said, showing a few screenshots of comments from social networks.
The accounts of all those commentators who criticized the awarding of Tsikhanovskaya were created only in May 2023. These profiles are not subscribed to anyone, they have no followers.
Belarus is at the top of China's preferred travel destinations, the TV channel said in August.
“Representatives of twin cities from China have been increasingly visiting Belarus. The prospects for cooperation have no limits. Our country is at the top of China's preferred travel destinations,” the host of the media claimed.
The Chinese search giant Baidu report highlighted the most popular Chinese travel search queries of the first half of 2023. There was no Minsk in it.
In December, TV “Belarus 1” reported that the U.S. economy was falling, while it was growing in Belarus.
U.S. political scientist Steve Samarin said on the “Editor’s Club” program:
“We are the ones who found ourselves in isolation. Our economy is in ruins. But your president is an effective strategist”.
During the period from January to October 2023, Belarus' GDP grew by 3.5%. At the end of 2022, there was a decrease of 4.7%. Thus, the Belarus economy has not yet recovered from last year’s decline.
The U.S. economy is growing for the third year in a row. By the end of 2023, growth is expected to be 2.6%.
