Main narratives:
- The U.S. will abandon the Baltic states.
Overview:
On August 15, 2025, President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a three-hour meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, to discuss ending Russia’s war on Ukraine. The summit concluded without reaching a deal, though both leaders described the talks as productive. The pro-Kremlin Telegram channel “Antifascists of Pribaltics” responded to the Alaska summit by framing it as Trump betraying the Baltic states.
“Antifascists of Pribaltics” uses the Alaska summit to advance several key narratives designed to undermine Baltic confidence in Western alliances. By presenting fabricated evidence of Trump’s willingness to sacrifice smaller allies for deals with Putin, the channel aims to sow doubt about NATO Article 5 guarantees and the US commitment to Baltic security. The messaging exploits existing Baltic anxieties about great power negotiations conducted over their heads, drawing on historical memories of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that divided Eastern Europe between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. This historical parallel is deliberately invoked to suggest that Trump, like previous Western leaders, views the Baltic states as expendable bargaining chips.
This channel published a joke “intelligence transcript” of private conversations between Trump and Putin. The fabricated dialogue portrays Trump as conspiratorially agreeing to abandon Europe for lucrative trade deals with Russia and discussing how to deceive the public about their negotiations. This fictional narrative frames Trump as willingly betraying not only Ukraine but broader European security interests, including those of the Baltic states.
The channel amplifies its betrayal narrative by mocking Baltic reactions to the summit. It characterizes Latvian media responses as representing “patients in the stage of denial” and ridicules concerns about diplomatic protocol, particularly focusing on symbolic gestures like Trump rolling out the red carpet reception for Putin. The propaganda dismisses legitimate Baltic security concerns as hysteria while simultaneously suggesting that their worst fears about abandonment are coming true. This creates a psychological double-bind: Baltic states are portrayed as both paranoid for worrying and naive for trusting Western security guarantees.
The channel’s portrayal of the summit as a betrayal serves Russian strategic interests by sowing fear in Baltic populations and creating an image of disintegrating NATO security guarantees. By framing the meeting as evidence that the US prioritizes deals with Russia over Baltic security, the propaganda attempts to drive wedges between NATO allies and undermine collective defense solidarity.
