Lithuania. Tentacles of Putin and Lukashenko
In August 2021, several thousand people gathered in Vilnius in front of the Lithuanian Seimas. They protested against the coronavirus restrictions imposed by the government. The action coordinated with the authorities began in the morning and at first passed peacefully. However, in the evening people cordoned off the Seimas building and refused to let the deputies out. Further events developed rapidly: the protesters beat the police, threw stones, bottles and firecrackers in their direction. The police fired tear gas. Some of the protesters also used explosives. However, journalists from local publications – Delfi, LRT, 15min and others – got the most. The activists, seeing the cameras of reporters, immediately covered their faces, filmed the correspondents on the phone in response, tried to hurt them or hit them. A similar fear of cameras has been displayed for years by pro-Kremlin titushki and employees of Center E at rallies in Russia. Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anushkauskas suggested that the unrest was organized by the regime of neighboring Belarus. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda also claimed that the mutiny did not take place "without the help of foreign states".
As a result of the investigation into the events in Vilnius, 87 people were charged . The most visible were a few activists – and they are well known to the local Department of State Security. One of the rioters (judging by the video, the most aggressive) is Laurynas Ragelskis . A citizen of Lithuania, Ragelskis calls himself a Belarusian. He regularly gives interviews to the pro-government Belarusian media, and also attacks anti-war activists in Lithuania and those who oppose the Lukashenka regime.
In May 2022, LRT journalists published an investigation according to which a network of people operates in the country, managing 105 Facebook groups, YouTube channels and various portals, spreading Kremlin propaganda, including disinformation about the war in Ukraine. One of the most active administrators of these channels is the already mentioned Ragelskis, and the entire network is centered around the activist Algirdas Paleckis, who was sent to prison for six years in July 2021 on charges of spying for Russia. According to the Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office, from February 2017 to October 2018, Paleckis and other defendants passed information to Russian intelligence. His associates from the International Neighborhood Forum and At the Dawn of Justice continue to actively post videos on the politician's YouTube channel . In July last year, forum activists traveled to Moscow, and in September they watched the so-called referendums in the Donbass. They also visited Belarus several times to meet with Alexander Lukashenko.
At the end of October 2022, these people were searched, and on February 20, 2023, the court ruled to liquidate the organization (which, however, was immediately re-established in Belarus). However, according to the head of the Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT) investigative department, Indre Makaraitė, nothing threatens the forum members themselves, since, unlike Paleckis, there is basically nothing to accuse them of. And even Paleckis, who is already in prison, continues to spread propaganda: by law, he is allowed two phone calls and one short date a week, and he uses this time to broadcast .
Four months later, at the end of February, Paleckis's supporters again made a loud provocation: they laid flowers at a destroyed Russian tank, which was installed on the anniversary of the start of the war on Vilnius Cathedral Square. According to the police, after that, a fight broke out near the tank: the man who laid the flowers punched another in the face, who plucked and trampled them. The LRT investigators identified the people with the flowers – all of them were actively involved in the 2021 riots, one of them then threw stones at the police.
Jurgita Ceponyte, an investigative reporter for the LRT, says that she and her colleagues still feel insecure to this day: “We get angry messages every week saying that we will be hanged for working for the enemy – the United States, Soros or Satan.” .
Latvia. War propagandists
Authorities in neighboring Latvia tried to hinder the work of propagandists even before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. However, most criminal prosecutions are dragged out for a long time and, as a result, essentially end in nothing. In 2020, the State Security Service (SSS) opened a criminal case for violating sanctions against 14 propagandists who created content for the Rossiya Segodnya news agency Sputnik and Baltnews. Former editor-in-chief of Baltnews Andrei Yakovlev, journalists Andrei Solopenko and Alla Berezovskaya, Sputnik and Baltnews columnist, activist Vladimir Linderman and others were detained. The investigation lasted for about three years, and only recently 14 criminal cases reached the court .
Linderman is a man with an interesting biography. The activist, described by Russian propaganda as “a fighter against Nazism in Latvia,” was the head of the Latvian branch of the National Bolshevik Party in the 2000s and deputy to its leader, Eduard Limonov. He still openly classifies himself as a National Bolshevik, calling them "comrades."
Back in 2014, Linderman was accused of “recruiting terrorists,” that is, volunteers who went to Donbass to fight on the side of the separatists. On February 26, 2022, he wrote on Facebook that the case brought against him was a "modest reward" – he then "did what was in his power, for the Donbass, for the Russian world."
In June 2022, Linderman was again detained at his apartment, but released on bail four months later. Now he has been charged under two articles: justifying genocide and war crimes, as well as inciting ethnic hatred. According to the State Security Service, Linderman received financial rewards for his activities from legal entities registered in Russia. On February 8, 2023, the prosecutor's office sent his case to the Riga City Court.
Kremlin media journalists also still live and work relatively quietly in Riga – for example, Alla Berezovskaya, an employee of Baltnews and a member of the Russian Union of Latvia party. She positions herself as a “human rights activist” who fights against the “Russian genocide” in Europe (and directly compares the current situation of Russians with the situation of Jews during the Holocaust). An open pro-Putin position does not prevent her from enjoying life in Europe – for example, in October 2022 she traveled to Italy.
Kremlin media journalists still live and work relatively quietly in Riga
Both Linderman and Berezovskaya have the status of non-citizens of Latvia – a special status, the holders of which have a passport issued by the Republic of Latvia. They are under the protection of the country during their stay abroad, have the right to permanent residence in the country, equal social and economic rights with citizens and the right to acquire citizenship of the Republic of Latvia at any time by naturalization. There are only a few restrictions: for example, they do not have the right to vote in elections and hold public office. To become a citizen, a person is required to pass an exam in the Latvian language and the history of the country. Russian propaganda has long criticized the existence of this phenomenon, comparing it with the practice of apartheid. Berezovskaya herself complained to the German TV channel ARD in 2014 that she felt "oppressed", but she did not want to go through the naturalization procedure "out of principle".
The Latvian Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs responded to The Insider that the status of a non-citizen can be revoked only if a person does not report citizenship of another country, joins the armed forces of another state, tries to overthrow the government by force, or if it turns out that he reported false information in the process of obtaining their status. At the same time, the status of a non-citizen cannot be revoked if the person then becomes stateless. In other words, non-citizens of Latvia, like its citizens, are under the protection of the republic and cannot be expelled from the country, even if they engage in war propaganda and cooperate with the Kremlin media.
At the end of 2022, Lithuania and Latvia introduced a questionnaire for citizens of Russia and Belarus applying for a residence permit or a national visa. It asks about the attitude to the actions of Russia in Ukraine, as well as about the ownership of the Crimea. The Latvian questionnaire also contains a question about the attitude towards the demolition of Soviet monuments. According to the director of the Lithuanian Migration Department, Evelina Gudzinskaitė, about 10-20 residence permit applicants every day indicate that they support the war. In this case, they do not receive a residence permit and are forced to leave the country.
Estonia. "Together" with Putin
On the other hand, Kremlin accomplices are increasingly having their residence permits revoked. Recently, the Estonian authorities expelled Sergei Chaulin, coordinator of the Immortal Regiment campaign, who spoke in support of the war. This case is notable in that Chaulin had the status of “a person with unknown citizenship”, that is, he did not have any citizenship, not even Russian. Earlier, Chaulin's associate, Russian citizen Alexei Esakov, was expelled from the country.
Even more noteworthy is the decision to annul the residence permit of a Russian citizen Alexander Kornilov, the head of the baltija.eu portal and the founder of the already mentioned Baltnews. As the Estonian Security Police explained, Kornilov was denied entry to the EU on the grounds that he was a "Kremlin activist", "part of the Russian network of influence." Kornilov himself was abroad at that moment, so the Estonian authorities did not have to resort to deportation. Now he lives in Moscow. The propagandist has already come to the attention of law enforcement agencies: in 2018, he became a defendant in a criminal case. The NPO associated with him was accused of using fictitious transactions to deduct from taxation the funds it received in the form of grants. Organizations imposed a monetary penalty in the amount of 6 thousand euros as a punishment, and Kornilov himself escaped criminal prosecution.
The baltija.eu website is still functioning and not blocked in Estonia, but its content has shifted towards entertainment. The publication clearly takes a pro-Russian position regarding the war in Ukraine, however, unlike Baltnews and RuBaltic blocked in the country, it does this very moderately.
“You have to understand that by and large no one reads these sites in Estonia. Basically they go the other way. All of these resources have social media accounts, and above all on Facebook, which is the most popular social network in Estonia, and these groups try to disperse certain topics. According to the latest yearbook of our Security Police <the force structure under the Estonian Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is engaged in counterintelligence – The Insider> , these groups are created by local pro-Kremlin “activists”, and these “activists” repost some information from these resources. Relatively speaking, sites can have 50 people attendance, but 15 of them post it in their groups on social networks. We do not have reliable information about how much these activists are paid by the Kremlin or they simply play the role of “useful idiots”,” explains Artur Aukon, executive editor of Raadio 4 (Tallinn).
The journalist believes that the “Russian agents” persecuted in Estonia can be counted on the fingers of one hand:
“Cases of the expulsion of pro-Russian activists are rare. All these decisions can be appealed, and the process is underway, there are even several organizations, including the bureau of the Estonian MEP Jana Toom, which is engaged in challenging such decisions in court.”
Toom, who, before the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine, spoke rather favorably about Putin (in particular, she repeatedly praised him for his military operations in Syria, met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was a regular guest of "An Evening with Vladimir Solovyov" and said that Putin There is no alternative to Russia), after February 24, she condemned the Russian president and the war he unleashed, saying that such a development of events was a “terrible shock” for her. Now she criticizes the Estonian authorities for the oppression of Russian citizens, defending both propagandists and Russians fleeing the mobilization.
“With Yana Toom, the story is quite complicated. I have known her for a very long time. She is trying to play the "man over the fight": she says, let's analyze the situation. Plus, she's very pragmatic. When she visited Solovyov's broadcasts, she knew perfectly well why she was doing this, because her potential electorate watched these broadcasts, and thus she managed to be elected to the European Parliament twice. Estonia has only seven seats there, and the whole of Estonia is one big constituency, and you need to get a huge number of votes. That is, Yana Toom is quite a pragmatic and cynical politician. She walks the line, she almost never crosses this line, that is, she cannot be accused of opposing Estonian statehood. But she does many things that annoy the Estonian public,” says Aukon.
According to the journalist, Toom plays her own game and "received nothing from the Kremlin, except for paid tickets to Moscow from Russian state channels."
In April 2023, the Dossier Center and a number of European media outlets gained access to a leaked Kremlin document outlining a plan to influence the internal politics of the Baltic states. The strategy was developed in 2021 and did not take into account the full-scale war in Ukraine, which greatly interfered with the plans of the presidential administration to increase influence in the region. However, these documents show that the Kremlin was going to bet on various organizations, such as the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots (KSORS). In recent years, it has been completely inconspicuous and did not conduct any real activity in Estonia until it self-disbanded in April of this year after receiving a verbal warning from the Estonian Security Police. Whether the expulsion of the already mentioned Kornilov (who was a member of the KSORS) influenced this is not known for certain.
Pro-Kremlin propaganda in Estonia was carried out by another public organization – "Together" (in Estonian KOOS) led by Aivo Peterson and Oleg Ivanov. Peterson is currently behind bars : he is suspected of committing acts against Estonian statehood. In March, Peterson unsuccessfully ran for the Estonian parliament, visiting Russian-occupied Donetsk before the elections and appearing on Vladimir Solovyov's TV show. On the air at Solovyov's, the “activist” said that Estonia needed a change of power through a popular uprising.
Pro-Kremlin media
At the end of February 2022, immediately after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, a scandal erupted in the Lithuanian media field. The Respublika edition called the war in Ukraine a “military special operation”, condemned the decision of the Lithuanian regulator not to show Russian news channels and spread a fake about the flight of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from Kiev. Following this, large retail chains – Iki, Rimi, Maxima, Norfa and Narvesen – as well as the Lithuanian Post began to withdraw from sale the printed version of Respublika and Vakaro Zinios ("Evening News", a weekly newspaper owned by the same Respublika).
Today, Respublika is trying to cover news about the Russian-Ukrainian war as neutrally as possible. The site quotes both Putin and Zelensky without judgment. But now the main bet has been placed on the domestic agenda: for example, the constant theme is that Lithuania is allegedly “dying” , being under the yoke of the European Union, NATO and LGBT. The newspaper also criticizes the Lithuanian authorities for "talking more about Ukraine" than about their own country.
In addition to Respublika, in Lithuania, for example, the Russian-language yellow newspaper Express Week is freely distributed. In the issue reviewed by The Insider, the news about Ukraine is emphatically neutral, although there is an editorial column criticizing the “abolition of Russian culture” in Lithuania, as well as an interview with a member of the Seimas, Dainius Kepianis, which begins with a question from a journalist:
“Recently, our national tricolor has been overshadowed by the yellow and blue flag proudly flying everywhere. And on the windows of the Ministry of Economy and Innovation of Lithuania, there are as many as three flags: of Ukraine, the LGBT community and the flag of transvestites. On the website of the ministries, our national symbol of Vytis has migrated to a yellow-blue background. What does all this mean?
Kepianis himself compares the placement of Ukrainian flags with obscene inscriptions on government buildings and says that in this way Lithuanians are “pushed towards a common flag, and then to cohabitation on the same territory with Poland and Ukraine.”
In Lithuania, the policy towards the pro-Kremlin media is much softer than in neighboring Latvia
In Lithuania, the policy towards the pro-Kremlin media is much softer than in neighboring Latvia. This may be due to the fact that there, compared to other Baltic countries, the smallest percentage of both Russians and Russian speakers. Согласно данным последней переписи населения, в 2021 году русские составляли 5% населения страны, при этом русским языком владели 60,6% населения. Власти Литвы внесли в список запрещенных сайтов некоторые пропагандистские ресурсы (такие как Sputnik), однако, например, другой сайт МИА «Россия сегодня» — Baltnews — до сих пор не заблокирован. Как и портал RuBaltic.ru, который публикует статьи на пяти языках: русском, белорусском, литовском, латышском и польском. И Baltnews, и RuBaltic открыто занимаются пропагандой путинской войны, называя ее «спецоперацией по защите жителей Донбасса».
В Латвии и Эстонии, в отличие от Литвы, Baltnews и RuBaltic заблокированы, однако они продолжают распространять контент — главным образом через Telegram. Согласно исследованию Digital Forensic Lab, Baltnews — самый популярный Telegram-канал российской пропаганды в Латвии. Сейчас у канала чуть больше 16 тысяч подписчиков, при этом он входит в первую пятерку по количеству упоминаний в других прокремлевских каналов (впрочем, Baltnews вещает на жителей все страны Балтии).
Что касается печатных СМИ, в стране до сих пор свободно продаются газеты вроде «МК Латвия». Про российскую агрессию в ней нет ни слова, зато говорится о грядущем мировом экономическом кризисе из-за того, что «звездно-полосатые ребята (США) наплодили много проблем по всему миру», и о «возможном вводе войск Польши на территорию Западной Украины».
TikTok-войска
В декабре 2022 года TikTok отчитался о том, что заблокировал 1682 аккаунта, распространявших российскую пропаганду о войне в Украине на европейскую аудиторию. Пропагандистские сети работали из России и Грузии, в общей сложности у них было 218,6 тысячи подписчиков.
В отчете упоминается, что прокремлевские выступления были направлены в основном на Германию, Италию и Великобританию. Но не упомянута Латвия, воздействие на которую, возможно, особенно сильно. «Миллионы лайков собирают тиктоки, в которых блогеры говорят, как плохи дела в Латвии, видео, где Путин награждает кого-то орденом. Власти заблокировали медиаканалы, но главное оружие пропаганды сейчас — социальные сети», — рассказала The Insider основательница балтийского центра журналистских расследований Re:Baltica Инга Спринге, автор статьи о влиянии TikTok на внутреннюю политику страны.
Пропаганда Кремля начинается с больших медиа, но потом происходит «рассеивание» контента по разным платформам в социальных сетях, отмечает Спринге. Эти сообщения (зачастую в виде «сенсационных» фактов) настолько хорошо подготовлены, что инфлюенсеры — даже неосознанно, по мнению журналистки, — распространяют эту пропаганду дальше. В целом все сводится к одному: в Латвии все ужасно, а правительство, вместо того чтобы заботиться о своем населении, помогает украинцам.
С 2020 по 2022 год в Латвии был огромный прирост пользователей TikTok: по данным социологической службы Kantar, число пользователей увеличилось больше чем в четыре раза, с 5,5 до 23%. По факту, каждый пятый житель страны хотя бы раз в неделю заходит в TikTok, причем это касается и взрослых латвийцев. Прошлогодний опрос показал , что если в Литве и Эстонии доля людей в группе от 40 до 54 лет, пользующихся соцсетью, составляет 7–9%, то в Латвии это 20%. Спринге полагает, что это одна из причин, почему прокремлевская партия «За стабильность!» прошла в Сейм по итогам осенних выборов.
Депутаты «Стабильности» не пропагандируют войну открыто, но говорят о сносе советских памятников, о возросших тарифах на отопление и электричество, об отказе от российского газа, о том, как членство в ЕС плохо сказывается на Латвии. В тот день, когда лидеры партии давали присягу в парламенте, они тоже рассказывали в интервью российским и белорусским телеканалам о «бедственном положении дел» в стране.
Главная «звезда» «Стабильности» в недавнем прошлом — депутат Глория Гревцова. В TikTok у нее три миллиона лайков и более 100 тысяч подписчиков. Она говорит на русском, поддерживает Россию и регулярно попадает в скандалы. Например, недавно Гревцова записала видео после посещения Музея оккупации, назвав все, о чем там рассказывали, «настоящей пропагандой».
Служба госбезопасности Латвии сейчас проверяет слова Гревцовой на предмет «прославления преступлений, совершенных СССР в Латвийской Республике», хотя сама она после скандала записала второе видео, где настаивала, что ее просто неправильно поняли и ее критику вызвали не сами факты, представленные в музее, а некорректная подача информации. 7 октября 2022 года против депутата было возбуждено уголовное дело в связи с предполагаемым обманом ЦИК. По версии следствия, при подаче документов она указала учебное заведение, которое на самом деле не оканчивала. В марте суд приговорил ее к 160 часам общественных работ. После этого Гревцова приняла решение выйти из «Стабильности» и продолжить работу в Сейме в качестве независимого депутата.
Ограничения для россиян, а не для пропагандистов
Однако по большей части меры, принятые правительствами стран Балтии после 24 февраля 2022 года, коснулись не пропагандистов, а обычных граждан России, приехавших туда на работу или учебу. Дальше всех пошла Латвия, в которой россиян с постоянными видами на жительство обязали сдать экзамен на знание латышского языка до 1 сентября. Власти Эстонии остановили выдачу россиянам ВНЖ и разрешений на работу и бизнес, а в июле аналогичный запрет был введен на выдачу виз и ВНЖ по учебе. В апреле власти Литвы приняли закон, который также ограничивает выдачу россиянам и белорусам новых видов на жительство. В первоначальном законопроекте также предполагалось запретить покупать недвижимость и получать гражданство почти всем российским гражданам — за исключением обладателей гуманитарных ВНЖ.
Журналисты Эстонского национального радиовещания (ERR) проанализировали , как российская пропаганда изменилась после начала полномасштабной войны в Украине, и пришли к выводу, что в Эстонии набирает обороты распространение фейков, основанных на страхах русскоязычного населения перед репрессиями со стороны властей. Больше всего проблем создает именно дезинформация, основанная на нарративе о русофобии, а ее источником выступают уже не внешние силы, а, что намного опаснее, сами эстонские граждане.
С этим мнением не согласен ответственный редактор Raadio 4 Артур Аукон:
«Если это и повлияло [на пропаганду], то не очень сильно. Нарратив о том, что в Эстонии „русофобия“, „русский язык притесняют“, не нов, он существует десятилетиями. Ситуация с отменой ВНЖ российским гражданам лишь подтвердила это мнение».
Под защитой демократии
Литовские и латвийские журналисты уверены: в отличие от России, в их странах никогда не будут препятствовать выражению альтернативного мнения, пусть даже угрожающего государственной безопасности. К тому же большинство «агентов влияния» Кремля формально осуждают войну. «Пророссийские пропагандисты используют инструменты демократии в своих целях. Они научились говорить на нейтральном языке, проходят по узкой красной линии, но не пересекают ее», — говорит глава отдела расследований LRT Индре Макарайтите.
Журналистка Re:Baltica Инга Спринге ссылается на данные Службы госбезопасности Латвии. Согласно им, из-за видео в TikTok с начала войны по подозрению в распространении ненависти и продвижении российских интересов было возбуждено всего шесть уголовных дел. «Полицейские каждый день видят сотни видео, оправдывающих войну России в Украине и распространяющих ненависть, но анализируют каждый случай по отдельности: личность человека, потенциальную мотивацию, число просмотров, потенциальный вред и так далее», — объясняет Спринге.
Вместе с тем, считает расследовательница, многие в Латвии до сих пор недооценивают угрозу таких выступлений:
«Российская пропаганда усиленно работала на страны Балтии еще до 2014 года, говоря: „Вы — недогосударство“, „Евросоюзу до вас дела нет”, „Как было хорошо при СССР”. Люди постоянно слышали о том, как в стране все плохо и что правительству нельзя доверять. Последствия мы увидели в 2021 году: грянула пандемия, и, когда гражданам сказали вакцинироваться, они не сделали то, что нужно было для их здоровья. Общество оказалось расколото и подвержено влиянию извне».