Media Published Kremlin’s Plan Of Influence On Baltic States

A certain period of time is set for each of the countries.

Journalists from a number of leading publications, in particular, Delfi Estonia, LRT, Expressen, the Dossier Center and other media, received access to documents that reveal the strategy of the Kremlin's influence on the Baltic countries.

This refers to the large-scale plan for Moscow's geopolitical influence on Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, which was probably being prepared in the autumn of 2021, before a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Evropeyskaya Pravda reports the details.

The publication notes that Russia has defined its own concept for each of these countries, which consisted of two parts: the first one outlined what the Russian Federation sees as a threat to itself, and the second outlined a plan to counter them. For each of the goals, Moscow has allocated a certain period of time — 2022, 2025, 2030.

It is noted that the Russian Federation considered language as one of the key influence tools — it should dominate in the education and public life of the Baltic countries.The same as other obligatory “historical” symbols of Russia. For example, Soviet monuments. It is noted that Moscow expected to implement the corresponding plan through the hands of local pro-Russian minorities.

The Russian Federation also paid special attention to the usurpation of the local economy. They planned to encourage business to cooperate with Russia as much as possible.

In this context, journalists drew attention to a number of events that indicate that the Russian Federation could begin to put its plan into practice. Namely, several scandals over the protection of Soviet monuments, which the local government planned to destroy, have flared in the Baltic states recently.

In addition, a large part of the Russian plan was devoted to how to weaken NATO's influence on Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The plan declared clauses that the air defense forces of the Alliance should not be based on the territories of these states or additional bases should be deployed in the framework of cooperation with NATO.

In the long term, the Kremlin planned by its influence to push the Baltic countries to the idea that the connection with NATO brings them only “potential harm”, and in this context to maximize cooperation with the Russian Federation.

It is noted that Moscow considered a similar plan in relation to Moldova and Belarus. However, the authors of these documents probably did not expect a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. There is no mention that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is preparing for war. Although, this could not be ignored in the context of the impact on the Baltic countries, the newspaper writes.