Report
Lithuania Weekly: Kremlin-Aligned Outlets Twist Jobless Aid Talk into Military Draft Claim
Last week, pro-Kremlin media in Lithuania pushed disinformation suggesting the country’s independence is crumbling and NATO membership offers more danger than protection. Misleading headlines fueled outrage over a misunderstood proposal linking unemployment benefits to Riflemen’s Union membership, while scandals surrounding Gintautas Paluckas were largely ignored or downplayed.
Weekly Reports
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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Latvia Weekly: Green initiatives – a threat to Latvian economy
During the examined week the disinformation narratives were comparatively diverse in comparison to prior weeks. Nevertheless, the primary issues discussed are domestic, such as corruption, societal values and language. From the examined platforms, most engagement is reached on TikTok and Facebook, where content is posted in video format. In the prior weeks, there had been a noticeable trend of disinformation channels being more active on Twitter, which is starting to reach significantly more engagement. Nevertheless, the engagement is highly critical.
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Estonia Weekly: Centrist party and people of Tallinn at the centre of attention
This week there continues to be a lot of discussion about the politicians who left the Centrist Party, stating that they are liars who went against the will of their constituents. There was also a lot of discussion about Zelensky’s arrival in the Baltics, Estonia’s relations with Ukraine, and about sending Ukrainians back to fight in the war. There was also mention of the economic downturn and the people blaming the richer cities.
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Lithuania Weekly: Discussions about Country’s Security
During this reporting week, heated discussions were mainly accelerated by two cases. Firstly, a man carrying a bag
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Latvia Weekly: Zelensky and Istanbul Convention
In the examined week, there was significantly lower activity in the disinformation channels examined. Similarly as last week, central topics are corruption and the Istanbul Convention. As seen in prior weeks, there is more activity in X which has also started to gain engagement. Nevertheless, the form of the content that reaches the highest engagement remains to be in video format and is reached in Tiktok or Facebook platforms.
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Estonia Weekly: Vaccines, Centrist Party and Russian Language
This week there were claims that the centrist party members moving to the socialdemocrat party is causing the centrist party to lean more eastward and the politicians who left are doing to be a bigger part of the government and advance their careers even though it goes against the wishes of the people. COVID vaccinations were also claimed to have been lied about in the beginning of the pandemic and stated that western leaders said they took the medicine but 17000 people who took it, died. There were also articles about the Estonian Language Department and their erasure of Russian language from old mechanics, because they believe that it may threaten the Estonian language.
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Lithuania Weekly: Major Wars Discussed
Kremlin-aligned media outlets still operating in Lithuania continued to cover the wars in Ukraine and Occupied Palestinian Territory in a highly biased manner. Outlets kept harshly criticising Jews and accusing them of mass killings, and condemning Ukrainians for their ‘own negligence’, by all means discouraging support for them. Specific outlets, as most of the time, further spreade the anti-government sentiments.
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Latvia Weekly: Russian Language, Passports and Threat of Muslim Immigrants
From the findings of the examined week, the main narratives concerned domestic issues such as corruption, life quality level, and Russian language use, remaining similar to the prior examined week. The content regarding the increase in passport prices, Russian language use, or potential migration often refers to the elderly population or children as social groups less protected within society. Moreover, some channels examined try to appeal to both Latvian and Russian-speaking audiences by simultaneously criticizing Russia yet encouraging Russian language use. Similarly, as in the prior weeks, the comment section is becoming more critical of the narratives expressed. However, regarding corruption, the expressed narrative is more highly supported by the audience and often includes hate speech towards leading politicians. The form of the content that reaches the highest engagement remains to be in video format.
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Estonia Weekly: School System, Languages and Radio
This week there were several posts about the government changing the language of instruction for all schools to Estonian and how this is not possible because the children who attend the Russian schools do not speak Estonian well enough to be able to learn using the language. This lack of learning Estonian was blamed on the government and how they have failed to integrate more Estonian into the Russian schools. There were articles written about the former “Russian radio” changing its name to “Super radio” and these changes implied Russophobia. Several posts also mentioned the corruption of the Estonian government.
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