Belarus has plunged into a dangerous world of illusions
Current events in Belarus are taking place in a new information and communication environment, in which even professional people find it difficult to distinguish truth from lies.
Andrei Bystritsky, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for the Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club, Dean of the Faculty of Communications, Media and Design at the Higher School of Economics, writes about this in Izvestia, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to him, the situation in Belarus, where the opposition has called for street protests and the overthrow of President Alexander Lukashenko, is determined by many factors.
The author draws attention to the fact that Belarus is far from unity, which has become a global problem and challenge for many countries, and different Belarusian social and political groups see the future of the country differently. The expert also points out that Belarus is surrounded by countries whose political interests largely contradict each other.
“And finally, thirdly, events in Belarus are taking place in a new information and communication environment. And in this environment, even professional people find it difficult to distinguish truth from lies. Who was beaten, who was beaten, what kind of people are running around the dark streets - go figure it out. National media resources with their Telegram channels and other messengers and bloggers are enough to create information chaos. And if foreign media actively and purposefully interfere, an information and communication apocalypse can even be achieved,” the political scientist believes.
“The three factors mentioned have led to the fact that a more or less confident forecast of the near future is extremely difficult. Belarus and its people have plunged into a dangerous world of illusions about the future, and the best thing that can be done is to give them the opportunity to deal with them themselves, not to allow illusions to turn (as has often happened) into a weapon of war,” Bystritsky sums up.
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