Report
Lithuania Weekly: Targeting Lithuania’s Government with Criticism and Conspiracy Theories
Kremlin-aligned Lithuanian media amplified anti-government narratives this week, criticizing Lithuania’s pro-Western stance and support for Ukraine as detrimental to its sovereignty. Articles also highlighted economic challenges, drawing parallels with social crises in Europe and questioning the EU’s capitalist model. Additionally, narratives claimed Ukraine is losing the war, suggesting peace depends on NATO abandonment and territorial concessions.
Weekly Reports
Latvia Weekly: Trade and Globalist agendas
In the examined week, the content primarily surrounded issues relating to the continued export and cooperation with Russia and Belarus and other narratives related to COVID-19 and lgbtq issues.
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Estonia Weekly: Economic decline and price increases
This week, most of the posts focused on the economy and taxes saying that the continuous economic decline and price increases are caused by the growing tax prices and new taxes, as well as the politician’s incompetency with knowing how to help the economy that is in crisis.
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Lithuania Weekly: Anniversary of Lithuania’s membership in NATO
Over the past week, Kremlin-affiliated media in Lithuania saw the highest engagement with stories focused on domestic events. Lithuania celebrated a notable 20th anniversary as a NATO member during the reporting period;
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Latvia Weekly: Trade and Globalist agendas
In the examined week, the content primarily surrounded domestic issues concerning trade with Russia and Belarus and corruption within the Latvian government, most notably the alleged wages paid in cash within the leading coalition party Jaunā Vienotība.
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Estonia Weekly: Militarisation of Europe and new taxes
This week’s posters were primarily focused on politics. An official channel posted twice about NATO, stating that after the Cold War, it is now a useless treaty, and after 2022, it has become the reason for the rapid militarisation of Europe;
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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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Latvia Weekly: Business Enterprises and Coalition Parties
In the examined week, the primary narratives surrounded the corruption and lack of trust within the government as well as the perceived threat by Russia and Russians within Latvia.
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Estonia Weekly: Voting rights and economic depression
This week, there were many posts claiming that the Estonian government wants to remove the voting rights of Russians and Belorussians and change the constitution to be able to do that.
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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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