MINSK, 4 August (BelTA) – Foreign countries used non-for-profit and non-governmental organizations as soft power against Belarus. Chairman of the State Security Committee of Belarus (KGB) Ivan Tertel made the statement in a series of documentaries titled as Belarus Against Color Revolution. The first episode was aired by the Belarusian TV channel STV on 4 August, BelTA has learned.
The KGB chief said: “We were a bit naive, this is why we trusted promises given to us (not only to us but to other post-Soviet countries, too). We were assured that those projects were allegedly designed to bolster the competitive ability of our entrepreneurs, the independence of our mass media (independence from whom?) and promote contacts of young Belarusians with someone, with some centers. All of it fits the description of soft power.”
Ivan Tertel went on saying that this soft power has been promoted for decades, influence agents have been planted, and conditions have been enabled to promote foreign mentality and foreign values among Belarusians. Simultaneously an information field was created to allow foreign countries to influence minds and moods of the nation.
The term “soft power” was coined by the American political analyst Joseph Nye. He used the term to describe a form of political power that can achieve results through voluntary participation, sympathy and appeal rather than coercion.
