Russia's influence | Baltic States: Journalism, activism, high treason?

High treason and violation of the Constitution is the verdict of the Estonian court that sentenced Svetlana Burtseva to six years in prison just over a week ago. The defendant worked for Russian propaganda media outlets that spread the Kremlin's narrative and are part of the sanctioned Russian RT Holding. Born in Tallinn in 1966, Burtseva received Estonian citizenship in 1994. She belongs to the Russian minority and worked for various Russian-language media outlets. She was also active in the socially conservative "Koos" (Together) party, founded in 2022. She has been in pre-trial detention since March 2024.

According to the court, Burzewa allegedly wrote articles under a pseudonym for the media outlets Baltnews and Sputnik Eesti, which are banned in Estonia. Both are owned by RT (formerly Russia Today) and target Russian-speaking people dissatisfied with language and history policies in the Baltics. The media repeatedly published false reports. Among other things, it claimed that Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf was more popular in Latvia than the Harry Potter novels. In 2017, the report of an alleged gang rape of a girl from a children's home in Jonava, Lithuania, by German soldiers stationed there caused a stir.

Burtseva's conviction has a further political dimension. According to the indictment, the 57-year-old is said to have contacts with Roman Romachev, a reserve officer in the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Romachev now runs a private company. However, the Estonian authorities have no doubt: Romanchev conducts "information-psychological operations" in Russia's interests and is said to have written a book with Burtseva entitled "Hybrid War for Peace." The court stated that the journalist intended to "divide Estonian society" and "discredit the Republic of Estonia and its institutions."

A verdict like Burtseva's is unusual, even for the increasingly nationalistic Baltic states. But it also demonstrates that fears of a Russian attack are growing in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Most recently, Lithuania expressed alarm when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wrote the foreword to an anthology on the country's history, thereby denying the Baltic country's right to exist in the eyes of politicians in Vilnius.

A few days ago, a scandal erupted in the Latvian parliament when Alexei Roslykov ( Aleksejs Rosļikovs in the Latvian spelling he rejects), leader of the Russian-speaking minority party "Stabilitātei!", uttered a sentence in Russian during his speech. "We are in the majority, the Russian language is our language." A scandal in a state that refuses to recognize its largest minority. Roslykov was removed from the plenary hall for "rudeness" and using Russian, later arrested, and released on condition that he not leave the country. The secret service has since been investigating him for "incitement to international hostility" and "aiding the aggressor state of Russia."