In July 2025, Telegram channels, with reference to German media, reported: Lukashenko sent not the Belarusian oppositionist to Lithuania, but his double. We have verified the authenticity of such publications.

A screenshot of the purported Deutsche Welle publication was widely circulated on July 6-7. The title of the note reads: “Sergei Tikhanovsky could have been 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 Slava"(182,000), Alex Parker Returns (123,000), "Dmitry Vasilets"(106,000), "First People's | News"(85,000), "Kot Kostyan - official channel" (74,000), etc., as well as the TV channel "Constantinople"on their Zen page, users X And Threads.

In May 2020, Belarusian blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky announced plans to take part in the country’s presidential elections, but he refused in registration. my candidacy instead exhibited his wife Svetlana, and Sergei began to lead collecting signatures in support of it. At the end of May Tikhanovsky was detained, and in 2021 sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of organizing mass riots, inciting social hatred, gross violation of public order and obstructing the work of the Central Election Commission. From 2023, talked Tikhanovsky’s relatives did not have the opportunity to communicate with him.

Tikhanovsky and 13 other Belarusian prisoners were released and deported to Lithuania on June 21 against the backdrop of a visit to Minsk by US Presidential Envoy Keith Kellogg and his meeting with Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko's press secretary Natalya Eismont explained that he decided to release Tikhanovsky at the request of Donald Trump and “purely for humanitarian reasons, with the aim of reuniting with his family.”

After his release, the oppositionist actively gave interviews, met with supporters and posted several videos on his YouTube channel “A Country for Life.” So, on July 1st he announced about creating his own team and raising €200,000 for “a powerful blow to Lukashism.” Three days later, Tikhanovsky released a new video entitled “Belarusians will never return home”, in which he complained that only €1000 had been donated to him. These videos were actively discussed by Internet users, and Media And Telegram channels the release of the oppositionist, whose actions began to be ridiculed on the Internet, was called a thoughtful move by Lukashenko.

It was against this background that a screenshot of a note allegedly issued by Deutsche Welle began to circulate. Now publications with a similar title are on the publication’s website No. It can be assumed that it was posted earlier and subsequently deleted. The first posts with a screenshot appeared on July 5, and the screenshot itself indicated that the note was published 21 hours ago, so “Verified” studied archived copies of the site for July 4 and 5. Copies of the “Belarus” section, in which, according to the screenshot, the article was posted, were not preserved during these two days, but numerous copies of the main page of the Russian-language version of Deutsche Welle are available. If the note actually came out on July 4th or 5th, it should have made it to the front page at some point, but archival copies for both she's gone for a day. In addition, not a single Telegram channel that published the screenshot attached a link to the alleged article or recounted (at least briefly) its content, limiting itself to only commenting on the headline.

Upon closer inspection of the screenshot, details are visible that indicate that the image has been edited. In particular, the title of the “Society” section is highlighted in blue, and the photograph on the cover of the material is not darkened from below, as is the case with other notes on the Deutsche Welle website.

The earliest publication of a screenshot that could be found “Verified” done in the Telegram channel “Vo///d” on July 5 at 19:04 Moscow time. Its author often publishes jokes on political topics, which the blogger warns about in the description of his channel (“About politics with humor”), but this channel has already met in the analysis of “Verified” as a distributor of fake, not satirical news.

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

Cover photo: X / @Tsihanouskaya