DISINFO: US political uncertainty temporarily gives the Baltic states a larger degree of sovereignty
SUMMARY
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya visited Latvia to remind of herself and to try to add Latvia to the Polish-Lithuania coalition and to influence it on the issue of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. However Tsikhanouskaya is just an avatar, she is a visual representation of people who stand behind her. There is no point in talking to Tsikhanouskaya, one should talk to those behind her avatar. Furthermore, Latvia cannot propose anything either. It is not sovereign in foreign issues and does what elder brothers tell it to do. There is a change in the US and it is not clear where the Latvian command centre is. Hence Latvian politicians and politicians of the Baltic states in the wider sense temporarily have somewhat larger autonomy. Within the next months when political uncertainty in the US is over, the Baltic states’ politicians will be moving in the direction assigned by the US.
RESPONSE
This publication contains recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the Baltic states as non-sovereign and the Belarusian opposition including Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya as Western puppets.
Often presented as American vassals or puppet states, the Baltic States are independent states, which shape their own foreign and domestic policies. The US is an important ally to the EU but EU policy is not determined by the US, as explained by the EU High Representative.
The Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya spoke at the international security and political forum Riga Conference 2020 and met with Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgars Rinkēvičs, during her visit to Riga. However, it was not reported that the issue of the Belarusian NPP was discussed, contrary to what the publication claims.
See other examples of these disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya is controlled by Lithuanian puppeteers, that the US is introducing extremists in the protests in Belarus, that Latvia lost its sovereignty to the EU, and that Lithuania is a hostage of the American interests in Eastern Europe.