Russian state news agency publishes column claiming Russia faces new "special military operation" in Lithuania

Propagandists at RIA Novosti, a Kremlin-aligned Russian news outlet, have published an opinion piece claiming that "Russia faces another 'special military operation'" [which is how Russia calls the war against Ukraine – ed.] in Lithuania but later deleted it.

Source: Latvia-based Russian media outlet Meduza

Quote: "The state news agency RIA Novosti published an opinion piece entitled 'Russia faces another special military operation. It will be very short', in which it threatened Lithuania with a nuclear strike."

Details: The piece was written by freelance contributor Alexander Nosovich after the Lithuanian Seimas backed removing the constitutional ban on the deployment of nuclear weapons.

The report says that Nosovich's column was deleted several hours later, with RIA Novosti claiming that it "does not reflect the views of the editorial team, its editorial policy or the state policy of the Russian Federation".

A copy of the article remains available in a web archive. In the deleted piece, Nosovich called Lithuania "a suicidal country with no brains whatsoever" and "a small but proud kamikaze in Russia's near abroad", while also threatening Lithuania with an invasion and a nuclear strike.

"The solution is not merely quick but lightning-fast. Don't think in terms of seconds from altitude," the column said.

Meduza notes that Nosovich is a member of the non-governmental organisation Council on Foreign and Defence Policy and editor-in-chief of the pro-Russian outlet RuBaltic.Ru, which is based in Kaliningrad.

In 2020, the Dossier Center investigative project linked Nosovich to an influence network overseen by officials from Vladimir Putin's presidential administration and Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service.

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