Fact check: Polish measures on the border with Belarus - an effective policy or damage to its own economy?

On July 9, 2024, a report was released on the YouTube channel of the BelTA news agency with the following content:

The performance is over; what have the border games turned into for Poland? In recent weeks, Poland has initiated an intriguing series of maneuvers. On June 13, the Poles established a buffer zone along the border with Belarus. A week later, Polish President Andrzej Duda traveled to China to discuss, among other things, the situation with migrants at the Polish-Belarusian border. Simultaneously, the Polish Foreign Ministry announced the possibility of closing all border crossings with Belarus. Finally, just last week, right before the SCO summit featuring the leaders of Belarus and China, Warsaw blocked rail traffic at the customs terminal in Małaszewicze, which is referred to as the “Chinese gateway to Europe.” However, while setting traps for others, the Polish authorities ended up caught in them themselves. Warsaw did not achieve its goals. Instead, it dealt a blow to both the country’s tourism industry and its transit sector. As always, the burden of reckless decisions will fall on the shoulders of ordinary Poles. But they are used to it.

Our verdict based on the conducted analyses:

Verdict: Incorrect

Reasons:

• The thesis or statement is completely false: information from multiple sources or opinions from several experts in a specific field contradict it.
• Causal relationships and connections clearly do not exist, as claimed.
• When quoting, significant parts are omitted, rearranged, altered, or incorrectly translated from a foreign language, resulting in a fundamental change in the meaning of what was said.
• The event occurred in significant aspects differently than stated.

Rating scale for evaluation

“Full video:”Let’s conduct an analysis of disinformation narratives and a semantic analysis of the entire plot.