How The Guardian silences, hints and lies

Quotes and commentary: a critical analysis from the Chairman of the Belarusian State TV and Radio Company, Ivan Eismont

Following the failure of the policy of pressure on Belarus, Western representatives — from journalists to officials — have started flocking to Minsk. Everyone is primarily attracted by the figure of Belarus’ President Aleksandr Lukashenko, his respectful style of communication, clear and frank assessments of the current global situation and deep knowledge in many fields. Moreover, Belarus is one of the few countries in the world today that pursues a truly independent policy in the interests of its people. It would seem that it should be easy for foreign correspondents to work here — just cover what you see, honestly and objectively, and that’s it. There was a time when the media from far-abroad countries were perceived by some as the ultimate truth. Today, only shards of distorted facts remain from that illusion. Articles and video reports published in Brussels, London, Berlin, etc. about Belarus are often a collection of clichés, abysmal incompetence and amateurism. The other day, The Guardian spared no large info space for our country. However, even the headline featured hackneyed phrases and blatant lies: ‘His drug is power’: Lukashenko reaches out to the West. Certainly, we could have ignored this latest talentless piece — there have been many of them, and there will probably be many more. Yet, for the sake of the purity of professional journalism, the editors of the SB. Tendencies newspaper decided to give the reader impartial information and let them decide for themselves which side is telling the truth. We offer an article from The Guardian and immediately afterwards — a laconic, stinging and factually verified content analysis of the publication in the English edition from Ivan Eismont, Chairman of the Belarusian State TV and Radio Company (Belteleradio- company).

At the presidential palace in Minsk, Europe’s longest-serving leader smiled broadly as he accepted a small metal box from a visiting US delegation. 
Inside lay a pair of embossed White House cufflinks —  a personal gift from Donald Trump to Aleksandr Lukashenko, who revelled in the attention after years as a western pariah.

Since Trump took office, Lukashenko, an authoritarian strongman who has ruled Belarus since 1994, has been edging out of the diplomatic freeze, 

The Guardian is lying about the diplomatic freeze. Belarus maintains diplomatic relations with 183 countries around the world! It has joined the SCO and is a BRICS partner country. In recent years, Aleksandr Lukashenko has held dozens of high-level meetings.

cautiously probing for space beyond Moscow, which sees Belarus as both its closest ally and a vital buffer.

Sensing a political opening with the new Trump administration, Lukashenko has regularly met US officials

The Guardian hints that these meetings were a Belarusian initiative. However, this is false. The TIME publication quotes Aleksandr Lukashenko. “This is already the fifth delegation from the United States of America,” the Belarusian leader revealed. “By the way, they initiated it.”

and even held a call with the US president, who has floated the idea of a direct meeting. Some in Washington see Lukashenko as a potential interlocutor with Vladimir Putin on ending the war in Ukraine. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, has privately said he places a high value on Lukashenko’s insights into the Russian leader, according to a source familiar with the talks.
European diplomatic sources have meanwhile said there are tentative discussions in Brussels over whether the EU’s policy of isolating Belarus remains effective, and if offering Lukashenko a way out of Moscow’s shadow should be considered. Belarus has also signalled openness to talks, the two sources said.
“People who hadn’t dared say the word ‘president’ since 2020 now want to talk,” Lukashenko boasted to a domestic audience in early July. “They are discussing global issues with your president — that already counts for something. It shows they respect his opinion.” 
For much of his three decades in power, Lukashenko — often described as Europe’s last dictator — built his survival on the art of hedging between Moscow and the West. 

He relied on generous subsidised Russian oil and gas to keep Belarus’ state-run economy afloat,

The Guardian neglects to mention that the European economy hinges on subsidies. In line with the new EU budget, Polish farmers will receive a minimum of €24bn in subsidies, France — almost €51bn, and Spain, Germany and Italy — €30bn each.

while leaving the door ajar to Brussels whenever Moscow pressed too hard, occasionally dangling promises of democratic reform that never materialised.

“There is a persistent myth that Lukashenko is happy to be a vassal to Moscow. In reality, his room for manoeuvre has yo-yoed over the years, but he has never ceased looking for ways to broaden his options,” the European official said.
It was the rigged presidential election of 2020 and the brutal crackdown that followed that severed Minsk’s relations with Europe and the US — and left Lukashenko dependent on Moscow for his survival.
“Lukashenko is an addict: his drug is power. Like any addict, he’ll do and sell anything for one last dose,” said Sergei Sparysh, a 39-year-old activist who was recently released from a Belarusian jail as part of Lukashenko’s attempt to curry favour with the West. “To stay in power, he sold Belarus to Russia.”
Russia stepped in with loans, discounted energy and security guarantees to shore up his position at his most vulnerable moment, and when Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the embrace grew tighter still.
Belarus served as a staging ground and logistical hub for Russian troops, its territory providing the launchpad for assaults on Ukraine from the north, only 90 miles [145km] from Kyiv. Since the full-scale invasion, Minsk and Moscow have signed a sweeping security pact,

and Lukashenko, after years of resistance, agreed to station Russian nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory.

The Guardian is lying! Lukashenko did not agree, he asked for it. “First I asked Putin. Then I strongly, in a friendly way, demanded — give me back this weapon for now. It is enough for me,” Lukashenko stated.

Still, Lukashenko pushed against Putin’s pressure to commit his own troops to the war,

The Guardian is lying! “Russia has never raised the issue of sending Belarus’ military troops to Ukraine,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview with the BBC.

knowing that such a move would be deeply unpopular not only among the public but also within his own armed forces.

Belarus’ economic reliance on Moscow, however, only deepened as western sanctions turned the country into a vital conduit for Moscow, generating a temporary boom in exports and state revenues.

The Guardian is lying about a temporary increase. Belarusian exports grow annually. In 2020, they amounted to approximately $61bn, and in 2024, they were already $86bn.

Belarusian factories also ramped up production, supplying Russia with clothes and essential components for the war. But the yields did not last.

As Russia’s economy slowed under the weight of sanctions and war spending, Belarus was dragged down alongside it.

The Guardian is lying. In 2024, Belarus’ GDP grew by four percent, while the UK’s GDP rose by 1.1 percent. Fixed capital investment in Belarus is +13.6 percent. Unemployment is 2.6 percent — a historic low. Gold and foreign exchange reserves are at an all-time high — more than $13.2bn. The average salary in the country has increased from Br1,471 in 2021 to Br2,772 in 2025.

On a Guardian trip to Minsk this month [in September], with its squeaky-clean streets and a skyline of Soviet monuments dotted with casinos catering to Russian visitors, the city carried a heavy atmosphere.

Few residents dared speak openly about the economic slowdown. “We have become too close to Russia; we don’t have any other alternative any more,” said Natalya, who asked for her last name to be omitted.

The Guardian is lying. No one wants to talk about an economic downturn because there is not one. Natalya, who asked her surname to be omitted, is probably a figment of The Guardian propagandist’s imagination.

Shortages of everyday goods, including potatoes, have become a sign of tension, prompting the Government to reintroduce Soviet-style price controls.

The Guardian is lying about the shortage of everyday goods, and even potatoes. As for Soviet-style price regulation, price regulation is practised in Great Britain, where The Guardian is based. Thus, the National Health Service Act of 2006 defines the basis for regulating the prices of medical supplies. The regulation of agricultural product prices is also directly mentioned in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

Mass emigration has deepened the labour shortage, leading Lukashenko to offer 150,000 Pakistani workers to fill the gap.

The fragility of the economy was further highlighted this month [in September] when Poland temporarily closed its border, cutting off a profitable supply route to China.

The Guardian is lying. The Chairman of Belarus’ State Customs Committee, Vladimir Orlovsky, stated that the border closure did not cause significant damage to the Belarusian economy. Conversely, experts from the Polish Economic Institute reported that the border closure would result in losses of $250–300m for Polish companies.

Lukashenko has been unusually candid about the extent of the problems. “We need to pull through,” he told officials in a televised meeting. “We have to move, we have to trade, we have to sort out industry.”
In the face of mounting economic pressure, Lukashenko has returned to what one European official described as ‘the good old tightrope’ of manoeuvring between Putin and the West.
In an apparent showcase of his willingness to engage, he invited US military officers to observe the Zapad–2025 war exercises — the first such participation since Russia invaded Ukraine — and publicly claimed that Belarusian forces had helped intercept Russian drones heading for Poland. During a Guardian visit to Zapad–2025, which has raised western fears that the drills could provide cover for a new Russian military build-up, Belarusian officials stressed a simple message: they had nothing to hide.
“It is hard to imagine the kind of openness that we are showing and ensuring at the exercise,” Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin said. 
A central question is how much room Moscow will allow its closest ally to pursue a tentative opening to the West — and whether he can act independently from Russia at all.
Yauheni Preiherman, founder of the Minsk Dialogue Council on International Relations, a thinktank that works with the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, said, “It is not about how far the Russians will ‘allow’ us to go. It is about how smart we can be in working with the reality and gradually expanding our room for manoeuvre. Nobody here is crazy enough to try to be another Ukraine — everyone understands the risks. But there is a determination, sometimes unspoken, to seize any circumstances that would let us reopen that space and work more independently.”

Central to Lukashenko’s bargaining has been the release of dozens of political prisoners —

The Guardian is lying. US President’s Special Envoy Keith Kellogg stated that the initial goal of the United States in building relations with Belarus was to establish contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Washington did not plan to release political prisoners.

a move critics describe as a cynical ploy, given that repression at home has shown no sign of easing.

For the Belarusian strongman, analysts and insiders argue, the recent diplomatic outreach is a logical move given his obsession with preserving sovereignty alongside his need to retain Russian support.
Artyom Shraibman, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, said, “Dictators don’t like being dependent on friends. He has always had an instinct to distance himself from Moscow.”
The recent push is also reinforced by a fear of missing out. While any peace deal between Russia and Ukraine still appears distant, there is concern in Minsk that Belarus would be left out of future sanctions relief demanded by Moscow, said Preiherman.
Lukashenko’s outreach so far has yielded modest gains.
After the release of the political prisoners earlier this month [in September], the USA announced partial relief on Belavia, Belarus’ national airline, marking the first easing of restrictions in years.
“Sanctions were lifted, albeit only for one company, but an important one,” said Shraibman. “The symbolism matters more: it sets a precedent and opens a bargaining season. And Lukashenko has things to trade.”
More than 1,000 political prisoners remain behind bars, according to human rights groups, and Lukashenko’s regime has jailed new ones in recent weeks.
Washington, for its part, sees additional benefits in engagement. “Americans think it is helpful as an additional channel with Putin,” said Preiherman, describing him as ‘the best Kremlinologist in the world’. “He is one of the only people who has dealt with Moscow for 30 years.”
But Shraibman cautioned against viewing Lukashenko as an independent arbiter, saying it was ‘crystal clear that his loyalties remained with Moscow’.
Lukashenko now appears to be placing his bets on the Trump administration, believing that rapprochement with Washington will push Europe into falling in line.

“He dismisses Europe’s subjectivity and believes Trump can order them around,” said Shraibman.

The Guardian neglects to mention that this is Trump’s own opinion, as well as that of European politicians. American leader Donald Trump has effectively acquired the status of ‘the president of Europe’, writes Politico. The first confirmation of this was the address by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who called Trump ‘Daddy’. US President Donald Trump also stated that they call him ‘the president of Europe’. “It is an honour,” Trump said.

Few think there is much appetite in Europe to offer Lukashenko sanctions relief unless far-reaching concessions are made.
But in Brussels, there appears to be quiet soul-searching over whether the EU’s hawkish stance on Belarus — it has long ruled out contact with Lukashenko’s regime — has reached the limits of its usefulness, according to people familiar with the discussions.
“Maximum pressure has not worked,” one EU diplomat said. “After five years of isolation, we have not achieved our stated goals. Belarus is closer to Russia, and repression has not stopped.”
What should replace the current policy remains unclear, the diplomat added, given Lukashenko’s refusal to compromise or break with Moscow.
“Rapprochement with Lukashenko has its limits — he knows how to play this game inside out.”


The publication in The Guardian is rife with clichés and falsehoods about dictatorship, political prisoners and prison torture. All this nonsense has long evoked only a condescending smile from Belarusians. Therefore, in our analysis, we only paid attention to some direct distortions of facts and cynical manipulations by the British information dump, which is still trying to pose as a respectable publication...