Russian propaganda targeted Lithuania’s defence policy and history

Russian and Belarusian propaganda sought to discredit Lithuania’s defence policy, accused the Baltic states of allowing Ukraine to use their airspace for strikes on Russia and spread false historical claims in October, the Lithuanian military said, according to LRT.

Military analysts said a parliamentary vote on removing Article 137 of Lithuania’s Constitution drew particularly strong criticism. The article bars weapons of mass destruction and foreign military bases from the country’s territory. Russian officials and propagandists claimed the move provoked Moscow and could prompt retaliation. The military said the messaging aimed to portray Lithuania as irresponsible and aggressive, and to deter it from strengthening its defence capabilities.

In early October, Lithuania’s parliament, the Seimas, backed the constitutional amendment at its first reading. The change would remove the ban on weapons of mass destruction from the country’s constitution, BNS reported.

The military said Russian propaganda also seized on a drone crash in Pasvalys district on October 18. It repeated claims that the Baltic states were deliberately restricting civilian aviation and letting Ukraine use their airspace to strike targets in Russia, including St Petersburg.

According to the military, the false claims were intended to reinforce the Kremlin’s narrative that Russia was fighting not only Ukraine but the entire NATO alliance. Analysts said the message was aimed primarily at audiences in Russia, to justify the country’s failure to defend itself against Ukrainian strikes or achieve significant battlefield victories.

Russia also used legal pressure against the Baltic states, the military said. On October 5, a district court in Moscow ruled on a request from Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office, declaring five Lithuanian, five Latvian and two Estonian citizens, as well as five organisations, direct Nazi collaborators. Russian media said the ruling would enable the prosecution of people who allegedly glorify Nazi Germany’s collaborators in the Baltic states.

Historical themes were also used in information campaigns against Ukraine, Europe and the Baltic states, with claims that neo-Nazi and fascist attitudes were widespread in the West and that the history of the Second World War was being rewritten. Analysts said the 80th anniversary of the announcement of the main verdict in the Nuremberg trials may have prompted greater attention to these themes.