Belarus: video “confessions” as a regime weapon against the opposition

Belarus: video “confessions” as a regime weapon against the opposition
© EPA-EFE/BELARUSIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / HANDOUT   |   A handout picture made available by Belarusian Presidential Press Service shows Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko casting his ballot during the Belarusian parliamentary elections at a polling station in Minsk, Belarus, 25 February 2024.

Videos of opposition activists confessing trumped up crimes and praising Aleksandr Lukashenko have been increasingly used in Belarus. The trend started after the 2020 presidential elections – denounced as fraudulent by the West and the opposition – as the regime cracked down on protesters, opposition and activists. The videos are meant to humiliate and discredit opponents and have been broadcast on state TV and/or updated on social media.

A tactic “popularized” by Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov

Initially, such form of humiliation and torture was made popular by the head of Putin’s Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, in the early 2010s. In case somebody voiced criticism of Kadyrov or his regime, his people (directly or indirectly associated with Chechen state enforcement agencies) tried to find this person, beat it up and then make them beg for an apology on camera. Such recordings became popular among Russians. The list of people hunted down by Kadyrov’s henchmen included famous singers, artists and even Russian politicians. In most cases, nobody was held responsible for these actions. So, this phenomenon spread widely around the post-soviet states.

After the election of August 9, 2020, the Lukashenko regime propaganda adopted and improved these tactics. The first such videos that emerged was with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. On August 11, 2020 a Telegram channel created and edited by representatives of GUBOPiK (the political police of the Lukashenko regime) published a video showing Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in the cabinet of the head of Central electoral commission of Belarus calling Belarusians to stop the protests. The same day Tsikhanouskaya was forced to leave Belarus.

A wave of recordings followed the Tsikhanouskaya video, all having the same hallmarks – citizens in detention who were forced to confess about things they haven’t done, apologize for their political position, and praise Lukashenko and the regime enforcement agencies. Many of those appearing on these videos showed signs of being tortured; some were beaten to the state when they could hardly speak. The recordings with people being beaten up by the regime servicemen appeared as well.

A series of channels and accounts were created on various social media platforms for publishing such materials and they did it on an almost daily basis. In the posts the authors openly mocked and humiliated the political prisoners they depicted, threatened all the political opponents of the Lukashenko regime, insulted national symbols of Belarus, etc. For quite a long time, the social media platforms did not react to these videos, in spite of numerous calls from users, NGOs, and politicians. Only in June 2022, 4 months after the start of the full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine, the major media platforms started to delete the accounts publishing such videos.

Roman Protasevich, the journalist who “repented” after three weeks in prison

The most notorious case following Tsikhanouskaya’s was that of journalist Roman Protasevich, who was arrested by the KGB after the Ryanair plane he had boarded was intercepted and forced to land in Minsk on May 23, 2021.

On June 14, Protasevich was brought to the National press-center of Belarus, and he told the media that he had decided to cooperate with the authorities after “realizing how much harm he had made to the state”. Then Tatsiana Karavenkova, at that moment a Belapan journalist, stood up and stated the following: “Roman, I sincerely sympathize with you. Many of your colleagues in Belarus sincerely sympathise with you. I can imagine what they could have done to you. And I don’t believe a single word you say. Just hold on, just get through it”.

Protasevich also gave a couple of interviews to state propaganda TV, where he criticized the political opponents of the Lukashenko regime, independent media and NGO functioning abroad after being forced to leave Belarus. On May 3, 2023 he was sentenced to 8 years in prison, but he was pardoned less than three weeks later. Every now and then he appears in state propaganda.

The political prisoner as a bait in KGB’s game

Another famous case is the propaganda movie about Andrei Paratnikau – an expert in defence and national security and head of the only Belarusian think tank dealing with issues of national security and defence, the Belarus Security Blog. A former law enforcement officer, Partnikau was a target for the Lukashenko regime propaganda for a long time. After his arrest in March 2023, the KGB of Belarus tried to use him as bait for foreign diplomats and BySOL Foundation (Belarusian foundation of solidarity, assisting the victims of the Lukashenko regime, and helping those that were under threat to leave the country). KGB wanted to know how the people are taken out of the country, who is involved in these activities and whether foreign diplomats are helping. Apparently KGB’s scheme failed and claims by the intelligence agency that it arrested a number of people connected to the smuggling out of Belarusians were plain lies.

After failing to use Partnikau as bait, the KGB did release footage showing him criticizing foreign diplomats and experts in the national security sphere. He also confessed of “working against the interests of Belarusian state”. In reality, he had been writing analytical articles on the national security and defence of Belarus, which is in no way prohibited by the laws of Belarus even in their current form. But if a person is arrested and facing 14 years in prison, it is very easy to make them say everything you want on camera.

Breaking down a hero

The latest and the loudest case is the one of civic activist Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk – a 49-years old mother of two children.

In the summer of 2021, Sharenda-Panasiuk was sentenced to 2 years in prison for allegedly insulting Lukashenko. Later, while already in prison, her term was extended twice, reportedly for disobeying the administration of the penal colony. During her imprisonment, Palina was held in solitary confinement dozens of times.

Initially, Sharenda-Panasiuk was defiant. She publicly refused to recognize the legality of the procedures undertaken against her. She also constantly denounced being tortured in prison. The regime reacted by cutting all her communications with the outside world: no meetings with her relatives, no mail, no telephone calls.

For almost half a year nothing was known about Sharenda-Panasiuk. Then, on March 19, 2024, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women called on Belarus to take temporary measures to protect her, given all the reported abuses she had allegedly faced – beatings, isolation, no access to hygiene products and warm water, and being forced to sleep on the cold floor.

Soon after the UN Committee call, the main state propaganda TV channel published footage with the mocking title “The journalists have found Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk”. She is shown watching a video of her husband and her two children, who all live in exile in Poland, and bursting into tears. It’s known that while in detention, Sharenda-Panasiuk was even denied pictures of her kids that were sent to her.

The propaganda video also includes a statement, likely coerced, from Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, who rejects the allegations about the poor conditions of her detention, denounces the Belarusian democratic forces, and compliments Lukashenko. The footage also reveals that Palina Sharenda-Panasyuk signed a pardon request addressed to Lukashenko. Allegedly, her participation in a propaganda video was made a prerequisite for the opportunity to meet her family after more than 3 years of imprisonment. However, following the release of the footage, her whereabouts are as of yet unknown and there were no news about her release.

Humiliation as part of the regime power play

The videos coerced from political detainees serve to humiliate and discredit the opposition, and to reinforce the regime. At the same time, they are a tool for pressuring both the political prisoners and their families, who are often prevented from keeping in touch with each other. Also, the videos are likely meant to act as a warning to those thinking to defy the regime, and a display of their strength and psychological superiority: if you do it, we will break you in such a way, that you will say whatever we want – even denounce the opposition and praise the regime.

It’s a cynical, even sadistic, approach. And there are no signs of the regime letting up.

 

 

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