DISINFO: It will take a millennium for Lithuania to rebuild its railways
SUMMARY
Lithuania considers its railway a tool of Russian and Belarusian soft power and a Soviet legacy. It voices the need to rebuild the railway network according to European standards. This will require around 900-950 annual Lithuanian’ budgets, meaning that Lithuania will be ready to undertake this task by the end of this millennium.
RESPONSE
Lithuania is a part of the Rail Baltica project which aims to link Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland with a new European gauge fast conventional railway. It is is one of the priority projects of the European Union: Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T), for greater connectivity in the EU, improved movement of passengers and freight, which will also contribute to the deepening of the EU Single market. The project envisages a continuous rail link from Tallinn (Estonia) to Warsaw (Poland), going via Riga (Latvia) and Kaunas (Lithuania). The Baltic route should be completed by 2025; the link to Warsaw-2030. The disinformation message is consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Russophobia in the Baltic States and their socio-economic degradation in the EU. (See for example: Lithuania is a typical dying young democracy).