How does the Kremlin use Latvian military exercises for disinfection? / Article

How the Kremlin reacted to the exercises

The Kremlin has reacted to the propaganda rhetoric that has already developed, treating it as preparation for an attack on Russian territory and claiming that Western countries are aggressors and that they conquer Russia. Actually, defense exercises play out scenarios of how we would respond to a direct military attack on our territory, but the Kremlin is turning the definition of the situation upside down.

The Kremlin also uses these events to improve its image in the eyes of the local audience.

The propaganda media highlights Russia’s military supremacy, claiming that the conflict in Ukraine, which still avoids the word “war”, shows that the West has no hope of defeat. on Russia, and that any other Western involvement in the conflict will be equally unsuccessful. Ukraine, on the other hand, still lives in abuse, because it is inevitable that it will be lost. The purpose of such rhetoric is to prevent others from supporting Ukraine or any other Russian adversary.

How the Kremlin explains that Ukraine has not been defeated

The Kremlin claims that Russia views the people of Ukraine as brothers, and to some extent the conflict could be seen as a civil war. For this reason, so to speak, out of mercy, Russia is not using its full military potential at all. With such absurd statements, Russia points to its moral superiority and its alleged “humane” approach, trying to create the impression that all the atrocities committed by the Russian army cannot to be true – they would not commit such acts against their Slavic brothers!

This, of course, contradicts the fact that the International Criminal Court is investigating Russia for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and has issued several arrest warrants out, including Vladimir Putin.

Referring to the military failure of Ukraine and the “goodness” of Russia, the propagandists come to the conclusion that the small Baltic states could not be so stupid as to Really think that they are able to go against Russia to any extent.

Where do we get such ideas from? The West is to blame, as usual, for just using Russia’s neighboring countries as a base to attack its territory without preparation at some point. It is said that the West fixed it by telling us about it, thus forcing the Baltic countries to just blindly follow US orders. We use it, we just don’t understand it. This kind of propaganda falsely invites people to think that the Baltic states are not sure and, like naive ducks, they are rooting for their big brother. Interestingly, there is also apparently misinformation floating around social media that Europe is actually cheating and exploiting the US.

So how does it manifest itself

This type of disinformation tries to find listening ears directly among Americans. Fake news tries to convince you that Europe is not investing enough in NATO, instead “directing” the money to promote their own wealth. On the other hand, the US is investing disproportionately more money in defense and sacrificing growth for European defense. Such misrepresentation creates the impression that Americans are being “stolen” so that European countries can prosper, and encourages the US withdraws from NATO.

But this is not true. This year, an unprecedented number of NATO member states, namely 23 out of 32, plan to allocate at least 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) to defence, as is explained in the guidelines of the federation.

This is twice as much as four years ago. Poland spends the most on defense (4.1%), followed by Estonia (3.43%) and the USA (3.38%), while Latvia is in fourth place (3.2%).

Such distortions seek to undermine public trust in international alliances, fuel divisions between the United States and its allies and threaten longstanding partnerships that have to shape global security for decades.

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