Baltic officials urge calm as Western media sounds alarm over Russia
While Western media and intelligence services warn of a possible Russian attack on the Baltic states, Baltic officials are urging calm, even as Lithuania tightens restrictions on Russian and Belarusian citizens.
Over recent weeks, European intelligence agencies and several Western leaders have warned of a possible Russian attack on the Baltic states, ranging from disinformation campaigns to outright military aggression. The warnings coincided with an unannounced visit by the CIA chief to Moscow and reports that Washington had warned Baltic governments of a potential Russian attack. Western headlines have been dominated by doom-laden predictions, while Moscow added to the tension with another nuclear threat, this time centred on Kaliningrad.
Baltic leaders insist this is part of an ongoing campaign designed to disorient societies. Intelligence does not point to any major attack in the near term, though the threat of sabotage and intelligence operations has intensified. Some analysts worry about scenarios involving stray drones entering Baltic airspace, but a ground invasion of Lithuania is considered highly unlikely. Britain's top navy general told LRT he was mainly concerned about Russia doing "something stupid" that would cross NATO's collective defence threshold.
More constructive signals also emerged last week, including a press conference where Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius and the NATO secretary general stressed that the alliance is not standing idle. However, the prime minister's remarks were later taken out of context when a Kremlin aide welcomed what he described as toned-down rhetoric from Lithuania's leader. Adding to the confusion, the Baltic states, along with France and the United Kingdom, were not invited to a NATO meeting hosted by Washington — a move Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda dismissed as "artificial hype."
New restrictions and sanctions
Lithuania's government has approved a bill introducing additional bans on Russian and Belarusian nationals, including a prohibition on buying property near strategic sites. The bill would also bar people who have performed in occupied or annexed Ukrainian territory from public cultural and sporting activities. Separately, Lithuania has imposed sanctions on Kremlin-linked billionaires who had escaped EU-level sanctions.
Lithuania also reported that since 2022, the number of students studying Russian as a second foreign language has dropped by more than 40 percent, with growing interest in German, French and Spanish instead.
