Report
Lithuania Weekly: Žemaitaitis’ Scandal Downplayed by Pro-Kremlin Media
Over the past week, Kremlin-aligned media in Lithuania focused on downplaying fears about Donald Trump’s stance on Ukraine, portraying him as a peace-seeking leader and dismissing criticism of his foreign policy as hypocrisy. At the same time, these outlets amplified narratives that Western governments exaggerate the Russian threat to serve the interests of the military-industrial complex, accusing Lithuania of fearmongering to justify increased defense spending. Meanwhile, while Lithuanian media erupted over the Remigijus Žemaitaitis scandal, pro-Kremlin sources largely ignored it or framed him as a victim of political persecution rather than a politician caught deceiving his supporters.
Weekly Reports
Latvia Weekly: Trains and food delivery
During the examined week, the content primarily surrounded topics relating to China inspired by the visit of a political party from the opposition and corruption. As examined in the prior weeks, there is rarely a focus on international affairs. Nevertheless, during the examined week, a credible Latvian news portal posted an article on the preliminary measures issued by the International Court of Justice in South Africa v Israel. The article was highly discussed on the X platform as it let out significant information from the ruling to portray to be more favourable to Israel. It even included statements made by Israeli officials as well as highlighted the wrongdoings of Hamas but not of Israel.
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Estonia Weekly: High living expenses and rightful actions of Russian Military
This week, posters were mostly focused on the Estonian economy, with posts focusing on taxes and tax brackets, which according to them, impact the average citizen more than the rich. Some posts wrote about the politicians giving the rich people more leniency. There were also many posts about the high electricity bills and cost of living in Estonia, and how this was all caused by Kaya Kallas and her parliament. Finally, the Russian embassy in Estonia shared a post from January which tells about Ukraine’s attempt to have Russia labelled and aggressor state. The post mentioned that this attempt was unsuccessful, and flipped the narrative around, claiming that Ukraine was targeting civilian areas, while the Russian army was only targeting miliary targets.
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Lithuania Weekly: Detention of Celofanas
During this reporting week, heated discussions were mainly accelerated by two cases. Firstly, a man carrying a bag with a Wagner group (Russian state-funded militia) badge was detained at Vilnius Airport. While the majority of social media users condemned him for wearing a terrorist badge, others found a way to criticize the officials and Lithuanian police, blaming them for inappropriate behavior or even of violating human rights. Another discussion burst out considering Lithuanians’ willingness to defend the country with a gun, if necessary. Yet again, numerous comments carrying anti-government narrative appeared online.
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Latvia Weekly: Friendship with China and faults of the USA
In the examined week, the main disinformation narratives discussed surrounded the cooperation between Latvia and China as well as potential war with Russia. Familiar to all content was to portray that media in Latvia does not provide impartial information and that the Western world and Globalists. In terms of platforms, most engagement is reached in TikTok. In comparison to prior months, content on Facebook is reaching less engagement.
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Estonia Weekly: Demonised and controlled teachers
This week there was more talk about the economy, including Estonia’s assistance to Ukraine and its effect on the budget and economy, as well as the salaries of the Estonian politicians and how they are being paid more than teachers and paramedics, even though they do less to contribute to society. A missile attack in Ukraine was also mentioned, as well as America’s and Britain’s assistance with this claimed deliberate strike against civilians that killed and injured many. The switch of language of instruction was also brought up, and some teachers are struggling with learning Estonian and are scared of losing their jobs. Finally, there was a video link posted about the deportation of non-Estonian citizens and how those who are simply expressing their opinions are going to be deported as well.
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Lithuania Weekly: Kidnapping of a girl in Kaunas
During this reporting period, the entire country closely followed an intense drama, namely the search for a missing 9-year-old girl. Fortunately, she has been found alive after a frantic two-day search by officers and hundreds of volunteers. Lithuanian police successfully carried out an operation to free the girl, who was kidnapped and held in a garage in Kaunas. Despite the show of public unity, a well-known anti-government and Kremlin-aligned actor, Antanas Kandrotas (Celofanas [Cellophane]), continued to fuel passions on Lithuanian social networks. Celofanas has repeatedly claimed that he has “non-public information” about the crime and that “police are hiding the real situation”, urging his audience not to trust police officers in general. Right before the victim’s suspected abductor was detained, Celofanas sparked an outpouring of hate by naming and publishing a photograph of a man on Facebook, alleging his involvement in the crime. Turned out that he was not related to the crime at all.
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Latvia Weekly: Brussels dictate and misused donations to Ukraine
In the examined weeks, new disinformation narratives have appeared. The new disinformation narratives have an underlying message of the European Union not being beneficial for Latvia. The content surrounding the Green Deal and global warming does not question global warming as such but rather focuses on how these restrictions imposed by the European union are negatively affecting the Latvian economy and even comparing the European Union to the USSR. Nevertheless, content on such topics is not gaining significant engagement.
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Estonia Weekly: Ukraine and mistrusted politicians
This week there was more talk about the economy, including Estonia’s assistance to Ukraine and its effect on the budget and economy, as well as the salaries of the Estonian politicians and how they are being paid more than teachers and paramedics, even though they do less to contribute to society. A missile attack in Ukraine was also mentioned, as well as America’s and Britain’s assistance with this claimed deliberate strike against civilians that killed and injured many. The switch of language of instruction was also brought up, and some teachers are struggling with learning Estonian and are scared of losing their jobs. Finally, there was a video link posted about the deportation of non-Estonian citizens and how those who are simply expressing their opinions are going to be deported as well.
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Lithuania Weekly: Fire in the Viršuliskės Neighbourhood
During this reporting week, the stories from Lithuania’s remaining Kremlin-aligned media outlets that received the most engagement covered domestic issues. These centred around a fire at an apartment building in Vilnius, in which 15 people were rescued and two died. Malign actors quickly linked the event to different conspiracy theories; for example, referring to it as a terrorist attack, claiming that police knew about the bomb but did not stop the approaching accident, or even assuming that Ukrainian refugees may have brought the bomb.
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