Launching Soon: A Union News Aggregator for the News That Doesn’t Exist

On November 5, Belarus and Russia established a media company for the Union State—a news aggregator focused on events in both countries. The holding is expected to be operational by 2025. It’s reported that this will be a serious, world-class organization. Yet, is this just another case of the Union mountain laboring and bringing forth a Union mouse?

On November 5, the charter and supervisory board of the Union State media company were approved. The idea of creating such a holding had been discussed for a long time—well before the signing of the Union decree and statements by the leaders of Belarus and Russia on its necessity. The organization is expected to operate as a unified editorial office and content commissioner aimed at promoting Union construction, propagating its achievements, and covering key events—even on external TV channels and media platforms.

The organization’s charter has not been presented to the public, and the composition of the supervisory board has yet to be disclosed. It’s assumed that the council may include heads of relevant government departments, parliaments, leaders of several parliamentary commissions, Union State structures, and others. In other words, the council will be packed with important figures who will not be directly involved in the media resource’s operations.

The main office will be in Moscow. Of course, Lukashenka would gladly have built a similar facility in Minsk (or allocated existing spaces for the office), but that’s not how things are done in current times. The Belarusian dictator also insisted on the “principle of equality” in creating the media holding. “If we are building our Union,” he declared in late August, “the main principle is equal conditions. No one salutes anyone; no one is subordinate. We are equals.” Lukashenko often speaks as if he has the resources to create so-called “equal conditions.”

The media holding will be funded from the Union State budget, traditionally divided as follows: Russia contributes 65%, and Belarus 35%. What proportions will be followed in the creation of media content remains to be seen in practice. The Union State budget is planned to increase by 15% in 2025.

It was previously expected that four Union media outlets would be part of the media holding: the Parliamentary Assembly newspaper Union Veche, the Council of Ministers’ periodical Union. Belarus–Russia, the magazine Union State, and the Union State Broadcasting Organization. Changes, of course, are possible but are currently unclear. It’s also known that about RUB 1 billion (approximately USD 10 million) will be allocated for creating this structure, although the budget may likely increase. This would be advisable, at least to match the leading global media companies, against which the Union State media holding remains (and is likely to remain in the foreseeable future) a minuscule entity. In short, the initial budget is quite modest, especially compared to the colossal amounts both countries allocate for propaganda.

It’s unlikely that this new holding will, in the coming years, match the reach of, say, Sputnik.by or BelTA. While the structure could be decorated with some propagandists, it won’t significantly improve its impact.

Why create a Union media structure when all independent media in Belarus and Russia have been destroyed? When only state media broadcast in the local information space, and the Union publications mentioned above are successfully published as supplements to Komsomolskaya Pravda, SB. Belarus Today, and Rossiyskaya Gazeta? When even district newspapers, which local authorities push on residents and organizations, are churning out stories about “Union construction” in a cookie-cutter fashion?

It turns out that the strategic goal of the new media structure is to “take our content, translate it into Polish, German, and English, and deliver it effectively to those countries that are waging an information war against us.”

It is quite challenging to wage an effective information war against the largest providers of information. They don’t even realize that they are (in turn) waging an information war against the Union State—an entity that, again, not all consumers of Western news agencies’ products are even aware of.