Report
Latvia Weekly: Disinformation Fuels Opposition to the Istanbul Convention
Ainars Šlesers of party Latvia First propagates false narratives claiming the Istanbul Convention promotes a “117 gender policy” and threatens traditional families, when the treaty actually focuses solely on preventing violence against women and domestic violence. He employs aggressive rhetoric against political opponents, repeatedly comparing Progressive party members to “Lenin,” sharing digitally altered images of them, and using terms like “gangsters” and accusations of “aggression” and “brainwashing” to delegitimize those who support the Convention.
Weekly Reports
Estonia Weekly: Cars and Estonian schools
The bulk of the posts focused on the switch in the language of instruction in Estonian schools, the issues that will arise, and how the government will do nothing about it except create a Potemkin village. There were also many posts regarding new taxes on things such as cars and pensions, with the Conservative Estonian People’s Party calling for people to protest by stopping their vehicles because protests are the only way to get the government’s attention. Finally, there were posts about Estonia being pushed by the West towards war with Russia and posts about Kaya Kallas trying to appear as non-Russian as possible.
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Lithuania Weekly: financial scandals threatening the government
During this reporting week, Kremlin-aligned media mainly held on the BaltCap’s case, as the recent internal investigation found Šarūnas Stepukonis may have embezzled even €40.4 million, and the fact that MP Justas Džiugelis has suspended his membership at the ruling Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democratic (TS-LKD) party and left the party’s group at the Seimas amid reports of his ties to a gambling lobbyist.
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Latvia Weekly: Media and Trump
In the examined week, the content surrounded domestic issues such as corruption and media funding and international topics such as the upcoming US elections, NATO and assistance for Ukraine. Most notably, there is a highly critical view of the capabilities and the effectiveness of NATO, which were also prominent in the prior two weeks. The reasoning for such claims is rooted in the unwillingness of other NATO states to help in the case of an attack. Regarding content, the leading platform remains TikTok which garners the most engagement and there is a significant decrease in engagement with content published on Facebook. Although some of the examined content creators are increasingly more active on Twitter/X, engagement remains low.
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Estonia Weekly: Macron and Schools
This week, many posts focused on Kai Kallas’s reaction to the French President’s speech on Ukraine and her willingness to send Estonians into the war for Ukraine. There were also posts about shutting down some schools and the loss of teachers’ jobs, as well as about school janitors and cafeteria workers being required to speak Estonian at an A2 level and how that is not helpful or useful. Finally, there continue to be posts regarding the Estonian economy and Kai Kalla’s and the government’s reactions and actions toward it.
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Lithuania Weekly: Two years on since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine
During this reporting week, Kremlin-aligned media were mainly concentrated on the upcoming Presidential elections and continued to spread anti-government sentiments. Even though this narrative is well-established, the current intensity of this narrative is remarkable: this may be directly associated with the Lithuanian elections due to take place later this year. Because of bypassing the years mark of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine during this reporting period, Kremlin-aligned outlets also discussed Russia’s war in Ukraine, claiming that “Lithuania will enter the war in Ukraine together with the Poles by sending their troops”. Articles criticised the government, stating that “Lithuania does not need the war with the Russians that this traitorous government is preparing “ and broadly portraying Ukraine’s victory as elusive and its government as “untrustworthy”.
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Latvia Weekly: Public Transport and NATO
In the examined week, the content primarily surrounded domestic issues relating to alleged corruption, the potential invasion by Russia, and the inability of NATO to protect the Baltic states. Such narratives have been employed by highly nationalistic content creators claiming to be supporters of Ukraine and those more aligned with the Kremlin narratives. The premise of the claim is that NATO is either ineffective not have the capability to protect the Baltic states or will not be willing to protect the Baltic states in the case of an invasion.
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Estonia Weekly: Military commitments and foreign policy
This week, many posts focused on Kai Kallas’s reaction to the French President’s speech on Ukraine and her willingness to send Estonians into the war for Ukraine. There were also posts about shutting down some schools and the loss of teachers’ jobs, as well as about school janitors and cafeteria workers being required to speak Estonian at an A2 level and how that is not helpful or useful. Finally, there continue to be posts regarding the Estonian economy and Kai Kalla’s and the government’s reactions and actions toward it.
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Lithuania Weekly: Weekly: Death of Alexei Navalny and undermining trust in NATO
Kremlin-aligned media outlets broadly commented on NATO and its possible faith. Outlets emphasised the questionable future of the organisation if Trump becomes the President, foreseeing that “it would be over for NATO”. Outlets also pictured Ukraine’s victory as impossible and ensured that “US and Europe have lost the war to Russia in Ukraine, and Crimea and Donbas will remain Russian territories”. Outlets also speculated the reasons behind the death of “the US-funded and Western-praised” Alexei Navalny, seeking conspiracy theories of whom to blame and calling him “a Western puppet”.
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Latvia Weekly: School reforms and corruption
During the examined week, the content primarily surrounded domestic issues relating to school reforms, an investigative report on one of the opposition parties, and high living expenses. A common theme throughout the content examined is that all of the issues are directly linked to corruption and leading political parties potentially to create lower trust in government. Additionally, the content discussed often mentions how specific policies negatively affect children. Most notably, the disinformation actors from the opposition party “Latvia in the first place” were recently exposed for their intentional content creation, including disinformation narratives. From this week’s findings, the disinformation actors that belong to the opposition party and their primary channels on social media are receiving significantly less engagement (the posts now reach less than fifty likes compared to the usual few hundred). Additionally, the content published now is milder in the disinformation narratives and trying to portray them more covertly or does not include them at all.
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