German Sputnik is publishing lies about Estonia

Propastop has written throughout the autumn how the Kremlin’s propaganda messages are increasingly emphasizing the myth that the Estonian economy is in a very difficult situation. In addition, they seek to create contradictions between the Baltic nations and the rest of the Europe. An example of such a topic was in a recent publication of the German language Sputnik.

In an analysis reported by the Russian propaganda channel in Germany on the 11th of December, it is stated that the European Union refuses to finance all long-term projects submitted by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. This concerns Rail Baltic, Klaipeda LNG Terminal and Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant.

Sputnik believes that in this way, Europe wants to direct the Baltic countries to resume relations with Russia. „In this situation, the politicians of the Baltic nations will have no other choice other than to seek peace with Russia in order to have new labour markets and transportation links.“

Are the allegations regarding the suspension of Baltic projects true?

No, they are not, they are lying. This summer the European Commission decided to finance Rail Baltica with 110 million € and contribute a total of 734 million € to the project, which covers 85% of the total project cost. In November of this year, the European Union said that it approved State aid for Lithuania on the Klaipeda LNG Terminal project. The Lithuanian government had already frozen the nuclear power plant project several years ago.

Why does Sputnik present such lies?

According to Propastop, the propaganda channel is trying to encourage the abolition of anti-Russian sanctions in this way. Given Germany’s large contribution to the EU budget, it wants to give the German public the sense that their money is being squandered on projects on countries that cannot manage themselves economically. For the Russian speaking population (Russlandversteher), the Kremlin critical position on the Baltic nations is already a sore in their eye. It is now being suggested to them that the failure to support the Baltic nations could lead to closer cooperation with Russia.

This incident is an example of cooperation with our Eastern neighbour’s propaganda network. This „analysis“ was published on December 10th on the Kremlin supporting Russian news agency, Regnum’s website. A day later the German language Sputnik was already referring to it. The author of the article is Yuri Baranchik; a Belarussian citizen accused of international incitement of hatred in his homeland and has consequently asked for political asylum from Russia

Pictured: screen shot from the article.