Anchor Marina Subbota spoke on March 21, 2025, about what she claimed was a positive take on the situation in Belarus by the American outlet The Washington Post.
“Minsk is democratizing its smart form of authoritarian rule for the sake of a brighter future. And doing it so well that even the American press admits: Lukashenko’s a real champ, the country's economy is a success, the officials are on point, and the people are happy with everything,” the anchor said.
Her words were illustrated on screen with a screenshot quoting a post from the Telegram channel Nezygar, whose authors had cited a Washington Post article.
We found and read the original article. Its author, Francesca Ebel, writes about visiting Belarus and witnessing how Lukashenko is balancing between Russia and the West in an effort to preserve the country’s independence, while Russia’s shadow looms over Belarus. The piece does mention that public sentiment toward the authorities has somewhat improved: “Not everyone is opposed to Lukashenko’s policies or to closer ties with Russia.” The article then goes on to explain this shift:
"Public sentiment toward the authorities has improved since 2020. Amid fears that Russia might try to conscript Belarusians to fight alongside its troops, people give Lukashenko credit for keeping the country out of direct involvement in the war. Closer economic ties with Russia, which have stabilized Belarus’s isolated economy and boosted wages, have also eased the wave of discontent."
In other words, the author does not claim that Belarusians are happy with everything. She lays out the reasons why some of the public frustration has eased. The WTF team also found no evidence to support Marina Subbota’s claim that Belarus’s authoritarianism is undergoing a skilled democratization pivot. If anything the opposite is implied—the article describes how sharing a post on social media can land someone in prison.
