Quote Originally Posted by Eric C. View Post
Well, let's think. The authorities of the country you're now in? I wouldn't be any surprised...
Hardly!
Belarus is incredibly bad at promoting itself abroad, and tweaking public opinion in other countries. Its attempts at promoting its views seem almost naive, and in addition the Belarussian government is not playing the diplomatic game with the EU at all; it seems they've given up
The tourist information available is also not slick, enough said about all this.
Of course, in MY view, all of that makes the country more likeable.

But if you look at Belarus from a Western/Anglosaxon market driven perspective, what they need is:
1) A kickass good PR agency
2) A top class spin doctor
3) SEO optimization of Belarus based sites
4) If you are going to be a bit black-hat, then a team of top class hackers..

and much, much more.

It's evident that a lot of what they are doing in terms of politics and promoting the country (tourism) is just a modern-day extension of what the USSR did in those areas. This model of tourism and PR is outdated today, at least if you look at the matter from a "Western" perspective.

Compare the reality of Belarus: "There is nothing particularly sinister going on here, people are super nice and the country looks very well kept everywhere."
...with the myth about Belarus: "This is an oppressive dictatorship where everybody is super poor, there is corruption and everything is falling to pieces. "

The average European believes that the USA is a much better country than it really is, and that Belarus is a worse country than it really is.
So who has the better propaganda?!

Per the US state department's information page about Belarus (which is the FIRST hit on Google) it says that the KGB comes into peoples hotel rooms and check their bags when they are out... Police regularly stop people on the street and ask for documentation. People are sometimes prevented from leaving the country, including foreigners, the risk for theft is very high because people are so poor ETC, ETC! None of this has turned out to be true.

If you take the USA on the other hand, the sophistication with which it promotes itself and conducts these "psy-ops" operations is fantastic.
The way they manipulate public opinion not only in their own country but across the world is unmatched, ever!
You have commercials, films, papers, NGOs, Psy-ops and lately now internet operations to push their view.
Most people don't even realise that they're being affected by it.

And Eric C. After all this, I have an eerie feeling that I should perhaps show you a captcha....
And why are you saying "I wouldn't be ANY surprised" what kind of funny English is that? Several times you have written like a non-native speaker of English. What's up with that? Are you American as everyone assumes, or some other nationality?