I see in the article that an MP (well-known clown, btw) submitted a bill claiming that the recognition of Lithuanian independence was illegal. The bill went nowhere, of course.
How did that manage to become "Russia said" in your mind?
The proper title for that article should've been "Russian parliament refused to even consider the bill claiming illegality of Lithuanian independence", but instead the "journalists" decided to additionally cite some random guy to try to make it a story.
I could play that game too. Lithuania said that people living there must be shot for listening to Russian music:
“Let's imagine a family where the father loudly turns on a Russian movie and the mother loudly listens to Russian music. The question is what to do first: to take away the children and then shoot them (the parents), or already in front of the children. No, of course, first take away the children and then shoot them,” said Algis Ramanauskas. [0]
But it would be silly to pretend that this Nazi speaks for Lithuania, wouldn't it?
"The Russian defence ministry late on Thuesday laid out a plan to unilaterally expand the country’s maritime borders with Lithuania and Finland. Less than 24 hours later, it deleted the proposal from the government website"
"Another Russian hybrid operation is under way, this time attempting to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about their intentions in the Baltic Sea [...] Lithuania’s foreign minister, said on Wednesday".
January 2024. Lithuanian National Radio and Television.
Putin claimed on Tuesday that Latvia and other Baltic states are “throwing [ethnic] Russian people” out of their countries and that this situation “directly affects [Russia’s] security.”
Exactly the same narratives that were used months before to justify the Ukraine invasion.
And where is Russia saying "that they want Lithuania "returned" to them"?
For the context, by the way, consider that earlier in May Baltic NATO members were discussing naval blockade of Russia [0]. A blockade is not a hybrid war, it is an act of war.
Putin has been transparent and explicit for more than 20 years about their goal to recover as much territories from the Russian Empire as they can, either by soft or by hard means. This includes the Baltic Republics.
I think that the fact that the government of Russia were debating in 2022 about if the Lithuania independence from Russia was "legal" or not, is very revealing in itself.
But what Russia says does not matter anymore, only what they do. Putin has started one war on Georgia, two wars against Chechnya and one war on Ukraine. All his actions had been solid and consistent towards that dream of "rebuilt Russian empire again". Everybody knows that Lithuania hasn't been invaded yet because NATO. Is also of public knowledge that Russians want madly a land connection with Kaliningrad. Lithuania can't expect anything friendly or casual from the current Russian regime.
>Putin has been transparent and explicit for more than 20 years about their goal to recover as much territories from the Russian Empire as they can
Only in Western propaganda.
>either by soft
It's like saying about EU that Germany restores Third Reich or France restores Napoleon's empire.
>the government of Russia were debating in 2022 about if the Lithuania independence from Russia was "legal" or not
I literally said that the parliament wasn't even considering this bill and yet you keep inventing stories that support the propaganda that you have internalized.
We once had a bill that proposed returning to Julian calendar. Would anyone say because of that, that "the government of Russia were debating" switching to new old calendar? Of course not.
>Putin has started one war on Georgia
Excuse me? "Georgia started war with Russia: EU-backed report" [0]
>two wars against Chechnya
The first war was started by "democratic" Eltsin. And it wasn't a war against Chechnya, that was a war against the regime that embraced terrorists that were taking pregnant women and newborn children in a maternity hospital as hostages [1].
>one war on Ukraine
That was triggered by American-sponsored coup in 2014. [2]
>Is also of public knowledge that Russians want madly a land connection with Kaliningrad.
Is it? Any sources? After the Baltic states started land blockade of Kaliningrad, perhaps.
Except he isn't actually. Explicit that is. He very much prefers to keep his messaging implicit in this regard to speak through actions when the moment presents itself, and let others connect the dots.
That's why he's never explicitly said he wants to recover former territories wholesale. Instead he says things like his signature line about the collapse of the USSR being the "greatest political catastrophe of the [20th] century", what a tragedy it was that "tens of millions of our co-citizens and co-patriots found themselves outside Russian territory" via this "epidemic of disintegration". And then (in a different speech), how as a result of this "We turned into a completely different country. And what had been built up over 1,000 years was largely lost", and so on.
Which presents the implication that, well, to make everything good again, one of the things Russia can do is get all these territories, and not just ethnic Russians, but all these "co-citizens and co-patriots" back into the Motherland. To, you know, get back what they had built up over 1,000 years, and make the Motherland great again.
And when he approves actions to start menacing the borders of the Baltic states, and has proxies such as Medvedev issue statements reminding Poland that its borders were "a gift of Stalin", that's just his way of jerking everyone's cortisol levels, and underscoring the core message of his speeches.
Apart from what he actually says -- I don't think he even secretly has a specific plan to start retaking any of these countries (aside from of course Ukraine, about which he is thoroughly obsessed and which is of course a special case). He's just making it up as he goes along.
His main goal (aside from Ukraine) seems to be to signal to the West that he doesn't care about its ethics or norms, and certainly not its stupid fixation with borders and rule of law. He's just going to do whatever the fuck he wants and thinks is in Russia's interest, and which he thinks he can get away with. And if it comes to either invading and/or simply fucking up countries whose governments take actions he just doesn't like, or which just think ways he doesn't like, he may very well do that (as he did with Georgia).
But it's not like he has a specific plan of reconquest, necessary. And even if he were to decide to go that route, it's not like he's going to come out and announce his intention (just as he never did so in regard to Ukraine). That's just not his style.
Wrong answer. Try again
2022. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-709046