EUvsDisinfo: When Borders Tighten, Propaganda Inflates: The Kremlin’s Border Disinfo Playbook
2025 was definitely a bad year for flights to and from Lithuania. According to the Lithuanian Ministry of the Interior, 320 flights were disrupted at Vilnius and Kaunas airports due to the passage of cigarette smuggling balloons from Belarus, which led to the closure of the airports for 60 hours and affected 47,000 passengers. However, the consequences for land transport are even more severe. About 185 Lithuanian trucks remain stranded in Belarus over Christmas after local authorities refused them permission to return to the country. Although Lithuania reopened its border crossings after a month-long closure in October, Belarus continues to detain the vehicles – an action that threatens Lithuania's position as a key link in the transport corridor between Asia and Europe.
Against this backdrop, Lithuania declared a national state of emergency on December 9. The decision is part of a series of measures taken by European countries in relation to borders and defense due to the ongoing risks arising from the Lukashenko regime and its rapprochement with Moscow. The balloon operations aim to undermine the stability of a specific EU member state and to exert psychological pressure on European citizens by generating direct threats to civil aviation. These actions should therefore be seen as part of a broader, targeted hybrid campaign, carried out by both Belarus and Russia.
Tighter border measures
For months, security concerns have been growing along the EU-Belarus border.
- In September 2025, Poland temporarily closed its border with Belarus due to threats on security related to the military exercises “Zapad“, held on the territory of Belarus under the leadership of Russia.
- At the same time, Latvia closed its airspace along its eastern border with Belarus and Russia after Russian drones entered Polish airspace.
- Earlier this year, Latvia tightened the regime on its border with Belarus. The reason - concerns about state-sponsored migrant smuggling. The authorities have banned the crossing of cyclists. Border crossings remained open to vehicles only.
- Lithuania closed its border for a month in October 2025 after cigarette smuggling balloons flying from Belarus caused repeated closures of its airports, ultimately leading to the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency in December.
As in previous cases, pro-Kremlin outlets and Belarusian state media have played a familiar pattern: dismissing security concerns, mocking EU decisions and suggesting that European governments are mindless puppets of “evil Brussels“, acting against their own interests.
Propaganda move 1: ridiculous pretext
The pro-Kremlin media and Belarusian state-run outlets completely dismissed the EU's security concerns. Belarusian state television mocked Lithuania's decision, saying: “The pretext could not be more ridiculous. Cigarette drones and weather balloons are allegedly threatening the airspace!“
Some media outlets went further and called Lithuania's decision "idiotic" and "a sign of primitive and narrow-minded thinking", sarcastically suggesting that the authorities would soon start shooting at crows and butterflies flying in from Belarus. State propaganda claims that the "West" military exercises pose no threat and suggests that Poland's decision in September 2025 to temporarily close the border was imposed "without reason" and based on "implausible" arguments. Latvia's arguments about borders were similarly distorted. They were interpreted as "the agony of European authorities and an attack on their own population". Among the suggestions was that Latvians were being discouraged from visiting Belarus because they were "very impressed" by the living conditions there.
Propaganda move 2: shoot yourself in the foot
Pro-Kremlin media outlets claim that the EU's border decisions are economically self-destructive and harm their own economies and populations. Belarusian state television announced that the closure of the border with Poland had an "extremely negative impact" on trade and tourism. Lithuania's actions were described as "reckless", and according to "Sputnik Belarus" the country "survives only thanks to trade flows from Belarus and Russia". These claims ignore basic economic facts: trade with Belarus and Russia constitutes only a small part of Lithuania’s total trade, and neither of these two countries is among its largest trading partners.
Pro-Kremlin media outlets regularly predict economic collapse in the Baltic states. In October 2025, Belarusian state television declared that Latvia was facing a “catastrophic” decline, predicting: “In less than a few years, even within months, maybe weeks, Latvia will have nothing to eat.” Similar mocking rhetoric followed Estonia’s reports of Russian violations of its airspace. State media mocked the country by comparing it to a “dot on the map“.
Propaganda move 3: puppets
The theme of “lost sovereignty“ also played an important role in this story. According to some pro-Kremlin media, Brussels ordered Lithuania to close border crossings as part of a provocation to “open a second front against Russia“. Belarusian state television also took up this thesis and accused Baltic politicians of being “Brussels' laboratory creation“ and of wanting to hinder the dialogue between the US and Belarus. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered an alternative explanation - he pointed to London as the instigator. For their part, commenting on the events in Poland and Latvia, Belarusian media pointed to Britain and the US as the alleged organizers. Although the pro-Kremlin media disagreed on who exactly was pulling the strings, they agreed on one thing: they were effectively denying any right of action to EU countries.
Moscow’s empty talk
Minsk, probably with Russian support, is deliberately increasing tensions with Lithuania. The goal – destabilization of the border region and disunity, part of the escalation of hybrid threats against EU countries.
This is a classic example of an information manipulation and foreign interference operation, whose actions, inspired by Russia, are aimed at undermining the security and sovereignty of the EU. Through the pro-Kremlin media, Moscow is fanning the familiar clichés to turn the crisis on the EU-Belarus border to its advantage – namely, that European security measures are absurd, self-defeating and dictated from outside. In this distorted reality, the real threat is downplayed and its potentially devastating consequences trivialized. Balloons turn into butterflies, smugglers into victims, and sovereignty disappears in an instant. There are no new perspectives, no surprises: Moscow repeats the same scenario.
Don't be fooled!
EUvsDisinfo/ translation: Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria