Russians are inactive trying to take advantage of tensions between Poland and Ukraine to accomplish their own goals. However, this is not the only issue the Kremlin utilises for its purposes. Moscow constantly reminds society about reports from the last couple of months that belittle Poland and link them to a communicative concerning the European Union and NATO. Together with the crisis in Polish-Ukrainian relations, these actions have been someway limited. Since this subject is no longer relevant, Russian authorities have resumed creating multi-vector operations by fusing stories and papers about Poland with concerns about abroad organisations functioning on our continent.
The Russian disinformation apparatus is presently concentrated on 2 narratives. The first is afraid with Poland “preparing” for an invasion of 1 of its neighbours (it most frequently applies to Belarus and Russia). Poland is inactive portrayed as a threat that “grows in strength with time”. Accounts on this are based on information related to actions taken by the Polish Army (e.g., exercises) and purchases of military equipment. These activities are combined with the communicative that shows the West (NATO) as a origin that “provokes” the 3rd planet War and as a structure “responsible” for the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The second narrative, presently propagated by Russian disinformation centres, applies to Poland indirectly. It refers to actions that belittle the European Union, presented as a “declining” structure. In this context, Russia informs its citizens about temporary border checks inside the EU, namely the Polish-Slovakian and Polish-German borders. In the overall distorted image of reality, the European Union is shown as a unit whose “flagship project” (the Schengen Area) will reportedly shortly cease to exist. This substance is presented as “proof” of the inevitable fall of the EU. In this context, Poland is illustrated as 1 of the factors strengthening the ‘EU collapse’ trend. specified a communicative has frequently been propagated in the last couple of months in the context of tensions between Poland and Germany as well as Poland and Brussels. The Russian side has frequently attempted to turn Poland (also in the West) into a origin that has harmed the future of structures it belongs to (EU, NATO, OBWE).
Parallel to the aforementioned activities taken by Russian sources, Belarus keeps devaluating Poland in the face of parliamentary elections. As part of actions taken by Belarusian sources, the information about alleged corruption in Poland and “intensifying political and economical scandals” is propagated. A “high risk” of election fraud is besides frequently promoted. In the overall distorted image of reality, Poland is portrayed as a non-democratic country that harms its citizens. In light of “bad Poland”, a affirmative image of Belarus is created. Belarus, ruled by A. Lukashenko, has allegedly become a “truly democratic” state that “takes actual care of its citizens”.
Author: dr Michał Marek
Public task financed by the Ministry of abroad Affairs of the Republic of Poland within thegrant comp etition “Public Diplomacy 2023”
