After Poland’s PM accused Vladimir Putin of being behind a migrant crisis at Belarus’s border, Petro Poroshenko expressed solidarity and support for friendly Poland and Lithuania on his Facebook page, calling on the international community ‘to take active steps to prevent a humanitarian tragedy and to punish those responsible’.

The former Ukrainian president also supported the ‘imposition of infernal sanctions not only against the Lukashenko regime, but also against the real ‘puppet master’ and enemy of the democratic world – Putin’.

 

 

The statement by Petro Poroshenko prompted the response of Russian officials and media. Russian top foreign ministry official Maria Zakharova responded mentioning only sanctionns against Lukashenko and not saying a word about Putin.

 

 

‘Bukvy’ has analyzed 12 Russian media outlets that mentioned Petro Poroshenko in the migrant crisis context.

Three media outlets mentioned Putin both in the headline and in the body of the news; two did not mention Putin in the headline, but wrote about him in the body of the news; the remaining seven did not mention the Russian president at all. None of media outlets provided a full quote from Petro Poroshenko.

 

 

Russia denies any involvement in organizing the migrant crisis on the borders of the European Union.

However, Putin discusses the situation with Lukashenko and Russian media create a picture of unfortunate migrants, showing photos of pregnant women, children and men looking for a better life.

 

 

Putin is ready to take the role of a ‘peacemaker’ and Russian news outlets delete any mentioning of the Russian president in relation to the crisis.

A reader should not think that the Kremlin is using migrants in shaking up the geopolitical crisis. A reader should sympathize with the forced participants of the Kremlin games, who are on the side of Belarus, but should hate the same forced participants, but on the part of Poland.

 

 

Russia is once again waging a hybrid information war. It is not a new thing for Ukrainians, but it will be an interesting experience for Europe.