Russian propaganda in Lithuania is spreading a fake that due to the number of refugees in the country, the level of criminal offenses is growing. In general, the majority of refugees in Lithuania from Ukraine are criminals, representatives of organized crime. But this is fake.

Data on the number of crimes in Lithuania is provided by the Delfi publication: in 2021, the police recorded 42,525 cases, and in 2022 the number of criminal offenses increased to 45,710. At the same time, such fluctuations have nothing to do with war or refugees since in 2020, when there was neither war in Ukraine nor refugees in Lithuania, the Lithuanian police recorded even more crimes than in 2022 - 46,306 cases.

The article, which blamed Ukrainian refugees for the rise in crime, was published in the Russian-language edition of Baltnews, owned by the Russian state agency “MIA Siohodni” (MIA Today), which includes, among others, propaganda resources Sputnik, RT and Ukraina.ru.

Since the first days of the war, Russian propaganda has been trying to present Ukrainian refugees as criminals or terrorists, as a cultural and economic threat to the EU, in order to reduce support for Ukraine and Ukrainians. Read more about it in the Detector Media investigation.

Russian media disseminate information that allegedly in Ukraine, electricity from schools and kindergartens was redirected to ensure the operation of ski resorts. Like, the Ukrainian military massively complain to the local authorities that their relatives are sitting without light and heat, while the electricity is not turned off in ski resorts. This is manipulation.

The situation with power supply in the Transcarpathian region is really difficult. In some settlements of the Khust district of the Transcarpathian region, there really was uninterrupted power supply for two days in a row, while in other cities and villages electricity was supplied according to the schedule. This angered the locals. The situation was described in an article on the Zakarpatpost website on January 29. According to the StopFake fact checker, the local authorities promised to find out why this situation arose and to resume power supply in all settlements according to the schedule. There was no talk of the fact that the authorities deliberately “redirected” electricity from schools and kindergartens and “gave” it to recreation centers. This is an unfounded fiction of propagandists, since outrages do not occur point by point, but by certain lines.

By spreading such messages, Russian propagandists are trying to devalue the work of Ukrainian energy workers and workers who ensure the operation of critical infrastructure as well as to show the inability of the authorities to solve energy issues. Previously, Russian propaganda spread messages: that Ukraine is resuming the export of electricity, and that is why people turn off the light, that Kyiv is the only city in the “former Ukraine” where, with the help of the West, energy supply is quickly resumed. They also tried to divide the Ukrainians, spreading the message that Odesa was without electricity, because “their electricity was given to the West of Ukraine”.

Previously, Detector Media explained how the Russian army and propaganda are trying to destroy Ukraine's energy system.

A network of telegram channels controlled by Russian intelligence is spreading the message that now in Ukraine the authorities will turn on air raid sirens more often than usual, taking advantage of the fact that Belarus is holding another joint military exercise with Russia. It seems that the Ukrainian authorities do not care whether there is a threat of shelling from the territory of Belarus or not. And the sirens are turned on so that the men go to the shelter, and at the end of the alert, representatives of the “military registration and enlistment offices” will hand out draft notices. It's fake. Air raid alert sounds throughout Ukraine when Russian missiles are launched or threatened, including from Belarus.

The channel network, which presents itself as Ukrainian, constantly uses the topic of mobilization in Ukraine to whip up panic and increase social tension. Along with reports that draft notices would now be distributed in shelters, another channel from this network reported that Ukraine has massively violated the rights of the mobilized and conscripts, and that it was necessary to apply to the ECHR (European court of human rights) about this - and to get “20-30 euros” guaranteed. . Also, in these telegram channels, they constantly state about the pressure that the Office of the President allegedly exercises on the media in order to force them to keep silent about the mobilization.

Mobilization has been going on in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, and as with any general mobilization, many violations occur during the war, including the rights of mobilized or conscripts. But this is written about in the Ukrainian media, lawyers talk about the duties and rights of both representatives of recruitment centers and those who are being served with a draft notice. This is a complex topic manipulated by Russian propaganda, including writing dozens of reports that draft notices were handed out to people in shelters and churches, without giving any evidence of this.

One of the tasks of the “special military operation”, that is, Russia's large-scale war on the territory of Ukraine, was the so-called “denazification of the Ukrainian people”. That is what President Putin said when he addressed the nation hours before the full-scale invasion. In order to justify Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian propaganda uses the term “denazification”.

“Denazification” is a term used by Russian propaganda to refer to the goals of a large-scale invasion. In other words, the eradication of supposedly Nazis from the territory of Ukraine in order to achieve global peace.

Russian propaganda actively compares Ukrainians precisely with the Nazis in order to evoke corresponding associations among Russians with the Second World War (the so-called Great Patriotic War), in which the people of the USSR liberated the world from the Nazis. However, the propagandists appropriated all the achievements to the Russian people, but omitted the fact that other Ukrainians also participated in the Second World War.

Consequently, a halo of particularity, significance and importance of Russians in historical discourse is being built. Allegedly, the Russian people had a special task to save humanity from the Nazi invasion. And now, it seems, they should do the same: to save the world from the invasion of other Nazis - Ukrainian ones. Speaking of the so-called denazification, the propagandists are playing with the emotions of the Russians, who once again get a chance to save humanity. At the same time, Ukrainians appear as evil Nazis who need to be destroyed.

Thus, Russia is trying to justify its invasion and, masquerading as “denazification”, commits genocide of Ukrainians, rapes and kills civilians. The real goal of Russia is the extermination of the Ukrainian people.

This is the third text for the new section “Newspeak”, which Detector Media launched as part of the “Disinformation Chronicles” project, in which it will tell and explain new lexemes used by Russian propaganda to distort reality.

We recall that the newspeak is an artificial language from George Orwell's dystopian novel “1984”. In the novel, Newspeak names words that lose their original meaning and have a completely opposite connotation. For example: war - peace. According to the plot of the novel, such a technique was used by the totalitarian party. It was it that gained popularity among representatives of real totalitarian regimes. In particular, Nazi and Russian.

In the German-language segment of Facebook and Twitter, users are spreading a video showing a train with German Leopard tanks. The inscription of the video claims that it was made before January 24, when Chancellor Olaf Scholz officially announced that Germany would provide tanks to Ukraine. But this is not true.

As Correctiv points out, the video was made in April 2022, and it shows the process of returning German equipment to its places of permanent deployment after military exercises. Users misleading the inscription that the video was made before the federal authorities decided to supply tanks to Ukraine write in the comments that Scholz is a liar and that he does not solve anything, since Germany is led by the United States.

The purpose of spreading such fake videos may be to influence the German society in order to convince it that Germany is losing independence in decision-making and sow distrust in the authorities. The audience of such fakes can be Euroskeptics and East Germans, who traditionally advocate rapprochement with Russia.

Russian propaganda is constantly trying to use social conflicts or tensions in different countries to sow chaos, discord or bring right-wing populists backed by the Kremlin to power. Germany is one of the most important countries for the Kremlin, on whose loyalty Russia has relied for decades. After the start of a full-scale invasion, German politicians admitted that their policies of “reconciliation” with Russia, attempts to reduce sanctions after the annexation of Crimea and increasing dependence on Russian gas supplies were a mistake. Also, the German society took the side of Ukraine. But Russian propaganda continues to work intensively in Germany, thanks to social networks as well. And their efforts are bearing fruit: according to a study by the German Center for monitoring, analysis and strategy CeMAS, since the beginning of the war in Germany, the number of people who believe Russian propaganda narratives has increased significantly.

Russian propaganda is spreading information that the United States seems to be supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia because of its interest in access to titanium deposits. This is manipulation.

The Russian media are spreading the news with reference to an article in the American edition of Newsweek called “The battle for Ukraine’s titanium”, which really discusses the prospect of investing by American companies in the development of deposits of this strategically important metal, including for the production of weapons. The article also says that Russia will receive a strategic advantage if it controls mining in the occupied territories, although it did not name the seizure of Ukrainian titanium deposits among the reasons for the war. The United States still depends on Russian titanium, and therefore does not impose sanctions on the oligarchs who own factories for the extraction and processing of titanium ore. And the occupation of Ukrainian titanium deposits can strengthen this dependence.

The article does not say anything about the fact that the United States supported Ukraine in the war precisely because of titanium reserves. The point is only that after the end of the war, American investors could meet the development of these deposits. But according to the authors of the article, Russia waging an aggressive war could hide behind fictitious reasons, pursue the goal and seize Ukrainian resources.

A network of telegram channels run by Russian intelligence is spreading the message that Poland is receiving huge sums of money for the repair of Ukrainian military equipment, and therefore is interested in continuing the war.

This is another Russian propaganda message about Poland, which seems to be the most interested party in the war. From the very beginning of the war, propaganda has been writing about Poland, which seems to be planning to divide Ukraine and annex or occupy the western part of Ukraine. Also, propaganda constantly promotes the message that Poland received a lot of cheap labor at the expense of Ukrainian refugees. Now propaganda is spreading the thesis that Poland seems to receive at least 10 billion dollars for the repair of Ukrainian military equipment. These figures are not supported by anything, but on January 29, The Wall Street Journal published an article about the repair of Ukrainian military equipment in Poland, which talked about a secret repair factory that restores artillery and armored vehicles. Poland will continue to repair damaged equipment, including American and European tanks, in the future, journalists write.

Poland is one of the most important partners of Ukraine, and Russian propaganda is constantly trying to present Poland as the aggressor or beneficiary of the war, once again trying to shift the responsibility for the invasion, in particular, to the United States and NATO countries.