Tag:
Reports
Lithuania Weekly: Search for the new Minister of Defence
This week, domestic issues dominated the stories, with the most engagement within Kremlin-aligned media in Lithuania. Pro-Kremlin outlets continued to explore the resignation of the former Minister of National Defence Arvydas Anušauskas more deeply, using it to criticise the government further, present various theories about why it happened, and review the possible candidates for the post. Discussions about the upcoming war were also present within the malign media: many of the articles discussed the subject of NATO sending troops to Ukraine and openly stated that war with Russia is simply inevitable; it just depends on what agreements will be reached during negotiations with Russia and what the outcome of the current war will be for Lithuania.
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Lithuania Weekly: Minister of Defence stepping down
During the reporting week, the Minister of National Defense, Arvydas Anušauskas, announced his resignation. The sudden and unexpected event generated mass reactions across all media, including the Kremlin-aligned. Most malign actors and outlets emphasised that after it became clear that Anušaukas resigned, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė had to explain the situation immediately. Failing to do so, or, as Kremlin-aligned media put it, “her unwillingness to do so”, indicated that “there is no professionalism left in this government”. They also claimed that it was not only “the worst time to announce his [Anušauskas] resignation” referring to the intense situation with the war in the close neighbourhood and during the weekend of the "election" of the Russian president), but the delayed response let the panic spread “like wildfire in society for three days”. The story itself and the follow-up handling of it allowed the anti-government narratives to spread further and possibly affect the general view of the ruling government before the upcoming elections later this year.
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