Humanitarian Influence of Poland and Lithuania towards Belarus: Comparative Analysis

The article is devoted to the transformation of the approaches of Poland and Lithuania to humanitarian interaction with Belarus and Belarusian non-state subjects in 2014-2024. The scientific novelty of the study lies in identifying the specifics of the humanitarian influence of Poland and Lithuania in the Belarusian direction in the context of changes in regional security caused by the events of 2014, 2020 and 2022. The aim of this study is to fill a research gap through a comparative analysis of the official approaches of Warsaw and Vilnius, the role of humanitarian policy in their foreign policy strategies toward Belarus, and the practices of non-governmental actors in these states. It concludes that, despite the declared convergence of approaches at the official level, significant divergences in the interests of Poland and Lithuania manifest themselves in their interactions with the Belarusian opposition. These states view this area of political relations as an opportunity to realize their aspirations for regional leadership. These ambitions are reinforced at the value and ideological level, including through the actualization of historical narratives in the information sphere.

The article mentions the organisations, whose activities in Russia have been officially recognised as undesirable. These mentions are made only for scientific purposes, as they do not seek to disseminate information about these organisations.

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