In July 2025, Telegram channels with reference to the German media reported: Lukashenko sent to Lithuania a non-Belarusian oppositionist, but his double. We checked the authenticity of such publications.

The screenshot of the alleged publication of Deutsche Welle spread widely on July 6-7. The heading of the notes reads: “Sergey Tikhanovsky could be replaced! Who did Lukashenko really betray and what happened to the real oppositionist? " This screenshot was published by Telegram channels "Pozdnyakov 3.0"(388,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Colonelcassad (213,000), "Uncle Glory"(182 000), Alex Parker Returns (123,000), "Dmitry Vasilet"(106 000),"The first folk | News"(85,000),"Kostyan Cat - Official Channel"(74,000) and others, as well as the TV channel"Tsargrad"On his page in" Zen ", users X And Threads.

In May 2020, the Belarusian blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky announced plans to take part in the presidential election, but he Refused In registration. Instead of him his candidacy I put it His wife is Svetlana, and Sergey He began to lead collecting signatures in her support. At the end of May, Tikhanovsky was detained, and in 2021 sentenced By the age of 18, imprisonment on charges of organizing riots, inciting social enmity, gross violation of public order and obstruction of the CEC. Since 2023, They said Relatives of Tikhanovsky, they did not have the opportunity to communicate with him.

Tikhanovsky and 13 more Belarusian prisoners were released and sent to Lithuania on June 21 amid the visit to Minsk by the special representative of US President Kit Kellog and his meeting with Alexander Lukashenko. Press Secretary Lukashenko Natalya Aismont explained that he decided to release Tikhanovsky at the request of Donald Trump and "exclusively for humane reasons, in order to reunite with his family."

After the release, the opposition actively gave an interview, met with supporters and posted several videos on his YouTube channel “Country for Life”. So, July 1, he announced On creating your own team and collecting € 200,000 for a "powerful blow to Lukashism." Three days later, Tikhanovsky released a new video Under the name "Belarusians will never return home", in which he complained that he was donated only € 1000. These videos were actively discussed by Internet users, and in Media And Telegram channels The liberation of the opposition, whose actions began to be ridiculed on the network, called Lukashenko a thoughtful course.

It was against this background that the screenshot of notes, allegedly released Deutsche Welle, began to spread. Now publications with a similar heading on the publication website No. It can be assumed that it was laid out earlier, and subsequently removed. The first posts with a screenshot appeared on July 5, and at the screenshot itself it is indicated that the note was published 21 hours ago, so “verified” studied archival copies of the site for July 4 and 5. Copies of the Belarus section, in which, according to the screenshot, an article was posted, has not been preserved in these two days, but numerous copies of the main page of the Russian -language version of Deutsche Welle are available. If the note really came out on July 4 or 5, at some point she had to get to the main page, but in archival copies for both There is no day. In addition, not a single Telegram channel that published a screenshot put a link to the proposed article and did not retold (at least briefly) its content, limiting himself only to a commentary from the heading.

Upon closer examination of the screenshot, the details are noticeable that give out an edited image in it. In particular, the name of the section “Society” is highlighted in blue, and the photograph on the cover of the material is not darkened from below, as when designing other notes on the Deutsche Welle website.

The earliest publication of the screenshot, which managed to find "verified", Made In the Telegram channel "V /// DY" July 5 at 19:04 Moscow time. Its author often publishes jokes on political topics, which the blogger warns in the description of his channel (“On Policy with Humor”), but this channel has already Meet In the analysis of “tested” as a distributor of fake rather than satirical news.

Thus, there is no evidence that Deutsche Welle issued a note on the substitution of Sergei Tikhanovsky, and the screenshot used as evidence contains signs of falsification.

Photo on the cover: X / @tsihanouskaya