Russian Influence In Lithuania

The Free Rus­sia Foun­da­tion, a US think tank, report­ed last month about Russia’s influ­ence oper­a­tions in Lithua­nia. The report argues that Moscow has attempt­ed to dra­mat­i­cal­ly influ­ence Lithuania’s infor­ma­tion space to suit its inter­ests because of Lithuania’s firm stance towards Russia’s poli­cies in the inter­na­tion­al are­na. Accord­ing to the report:

Lithua­nia  has  held  a  firm  stance  towards  Russia’s   poli­cies in the inter­na­tion­al are­na. In response, Moscow  has attempt­ed to dra­mat­i­cal­ly influ­ence Lithuania’s infor­ma­tion space to suit its own inter­ests. The Kremlin’s main tools of influ­ence in attempt­ing to trans­form Lithuania’s infor­ma­tion envi­ron­ment include not  only media reg­is­tered in the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion, but also a broad range of alleged­ly inde­pen­dent Russ­ian out­lets and experts, blog­gers, and influ­encers who active­ly dis­sem­i­nate pro-Krem­lin nar­ra­tives on social media. In addi­tion, pro-Russ­ian nar­ra­tives are repeat­ed by media  reg­is­tered in Lithua­nia itself.

Read the full report here.

In Jan­u­ary, we rec­om­mend­ed a NATO study exam­in­ing Russia’s foot­print in the Nordic-Baltic infor­ma­tion envi­ron­ment. In April, we rec­om­mend­ed a NATO study assess­ing Lithuania’s mea­sures to counter Russ­ian disinformation.