Protests have been going on in several places across Belarus for the last 10 days asking for the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko, over disputed elections. On August 9, Lukashenko extended his 26-year rule in the latest election, the opposition, however, stated that it was rigged.
According to a Time report, thousands of people went on strike and called for the President, in power since 1994 to step down.
In light of this, a video is being circulated on Twitter which claims to show a glimpse of these protests.
‘This protest in Belarus is so cool,’ the caption of one such post reads. At the time of writing this report, the video has been retweeted over 16,000 times. The video had garnered over 1 million views.
This protest in Belarus is so cool pic.twitter.com/7jMpNjqWzd
— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) August 19, 2020
Protest just hits different in Belarus https://t.co/EzSkvlrmYp
— ◥◤Kriston Capps (@kristoncapps) August 19, 2020
RUN THEM OUTTA TOWNCitizens creatively protest stolen Presidential election in Belarus. #corruption https://t.co/YwDkkh17zs
— Bombshell DAILY (@BombshellDAILY) August 19, 2020
Claim:
Video shows a glimpse of the ongoing protests in Belarus.
Fact Check:
The video is not real. It is a VFX artwork video by Alexander Ivanov, a St Petersburg based artist.
The official Twitter account of BBC’s Have Your Say enquired about the authenticity of the viral tweet. The Twitter used replied: ‘It was made by a special effects artist based in St Petersburg called Alexander Ivanov.’
The artist’s Instagram account was also linked in the reply to BBC’s question.
The artist who created the video, Alexander Ivanov, is a Filmmaker and VFX (Visual effects) artist based in Russia, Saint Petersburg, according to his Instagram Bio. The Logical Indian reached out to him regarding the viral video. He confirmed that it was made by him.
He had posted this video on August 19 with the caption ‘You shall not pass, Lukashenko!’
View this post on Instagram
You shall not pass, Lukashenko! ⠀ Lukashenko portrait by @borisgroh #жывебеларусь
A post shared by (@jilrock1) on Aug 18, 2020 at 4:15am PDT
The artist’s Instagram handle is also mentioned in the video.
Ivanov also posted glimpses of him creating the VFX video.
He credited the graphic of the Belarus President to Boris Groh, an artist based out of Ukraine. Groh had posted the portrait of Alexander Lukashenko used in the video.
View this post on Instagram
#Belarus
A post shared by Boris Groh (@borisgroh) on Aug 11, 2020 at 7:18am PDT
Speaking to The Logical Indian, Groh said that, ‘It’s (the video) a computer graphic made by VFX artist Alexander Ivanov ( @jilrock1 ). So this is not a real thing.’
Therefore, the video is not real, it has been created using Visual effects.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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