An analytical report has been presented in Russia. This report concerns ways to strengthening soft power in Baltic States. TV3 programme Nekā personīga comments that the propaganda restrictions imposed on Russians here create serious problems, which is why Russia needs to employ more devious practices in education, culture and social networks to circumvent these restrictions.
In 2023 Russian Pskov State University unveiled and analytical report about the policies Baltic States employ in relation to Russian language and culture. The report was published on Telegram platform by Aleksandr Dyukov. He is a Russian historian and works in the Advisory Council for Foreign Relations of the Russian President’s Administration. Dyukov is blacklisted by Latvia, Lithuania and other countries.
One of the authors of the report is Nikolai Mezhevich, who is in charge of Russia’s Baltic Research Association, often speaks about Russophobia, Nazism and other negatives in Baltic States on various channels in YouTube. He also participates in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Valdai Discussion Club think tank. He is well-known with his various loud statements, such as that from Russia’s point of view Baltic States don’t exist, Nekā personīga reports.
In the 136-pages long document, researchers analyse the different soft power instruments Russia should employ in the new situation, when traditional propaganda channels in Baltic States are shut down.
Russian analysts see perspectives on social networks. Unlike other platforms, Telegram remains a pro-Russian resource, the report mentions. The document also lists the most popular pages on Telegram and Vkontakte platforms that popularise the Russian world in Baltic States.
This includes the “Baltic Antifascists”, which have more than 15 000 followers. At least six members of this organisation are under investigation in Latvia for denying war crimes in Ukraine and inciting ethnic hatred, but also for collecting information in the interests of Russian special services. The political party Latvian Russians Union (now part of Pamats-LV) calls these people political prisoners.
The report also mentions Baltnews, which has almost 18 000 followers. There are also groups with smaller communities, such as “Shproti v izgnanije”, “Tribaltiskije Vimirati”, “Baltologija”, “Okupacija Pribaltiki voiskami NATO”, “Russkaja Pribaltika”, “Litva – poligon NATO”.
Russian researchers concluded: people live in an information bubble in Baltic States, and entering this bubble is difficult for Russian propaganda. Other methods should be used to reach out to people who consume information in Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian languages.
“Since 2018 it has been apparent that Russia’s so-called psychological information and influence operations have changed. While previously the strategy was based on using minorities to promote interests in Latvia, now things are different. They now employ a strategy that is no longer about Russia but rather a strategy aimed against the west and western values,” comments the leading researcher of the Security and Strategic Research Centre of the Latvian National Defence Academy Jānis Bērziņš.
Now Russia’s psychological influence operations are intended to focus on weak points of society and distrust of politicians, the media and other institutions. Russia uses them and presents them in a light positive to it – against globalisation, against the existing democratic system.
According to Bērziņš, the objective of these operations is undermining the existing political system to ensure powers that serve Russia’s interests are put into power.
Russia wants to make all of its neighbours into satellites like Belarus or Hungary, says the Latvian expert.
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