The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti published an article claiming that "Russia is expecting another SVO ["special military operation", war - ed. note]" in Lithuania, but later deleted it, reports the Russian opposition media outlet Meduza.
"The state news agency RIA Novosti published an article titled 'Russia is expecting another SVO. It will be very short, in which he threatened Lithuania with a nuclear strike," a fragment of the publication says.
The text was written by the agency's external contributor Alexander Nosovich after the Lithuanian Seimas supported the lifting of the constitutional ban on the deployment of nuclear weapons.
Nosovich's article was reportedly deleted a few hours later on the grounds that it allegedly "does not correspond to the opinion of the editorial board, editorial policy or state policy of the Russian Federation."
A copy of the article has been preserved in a web archive. In the deleted text, Nosovich describes Lithuania as a "suicidal state, completely devoid of brains" and as a "small but proud kamikaze in the "near abroad" of Russia", while threatening the country with invasion and nuclear strike.
"The decision is not just quick; it is lightning fast. Don't underestimate the seconds", the article says.
Meduza notes that Nosovich is a member of the non-governmental organization "Council on Foreign and Defense Policy" and editor-in-chief of the nationalist media outlet RuBaltic.Ru, based in Kaliningrad.
In 2020, the Center for Investigative Journalism "Dossier" connected Nosovich to an influence network controlled by officials of the Putin administration and Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service.