A campaign promoting the Call Russia initiative has angered people in Vilnius, who say that the project first launched after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sends the wrong message to NATO leaders.
The Call Russia campaign invites volunteers to call common Russian people and have a conversation with them about what is really happening in Ukraine due to Russia’s invasion.
Ahead of the Vilnius NATO Summit, more posters with the invitation to call Russia have appeared in Vilnius and raised questions about the necessity of the campaign.
“If in the first months of the war there was an inertia to call Russian acquaintances, friends, and other people and ask them to ‘stop the war, rise up, do something’, then after one and a half years of the war it is, to put it mildly, foolish to call Russia,” Oleg Surajev, a public figure and head of the 1k Ukraine support fund, wrote on Facebook on Friday.
“It looks to me like a well-crafted Russian special information operation, trying to insert a strong message to ‘reach an agreement with Russia’ in the context of the NATO summit. And the message is nicely targeted at the leadership, who are guaranteed to see it through the limousine windows,” said Jonas Ohman, head of an NGO Blue/Yellow that supports Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers.
“Let’s note, for example, one detail – English on top. If it was aimed at locals (Lithuanians), it would be a bit strange, but in this context it’s clear. Two lines –that’s how much you can read through the window,” he added.
On Saturday, a campaign was also organised in Vilnius to cover the Call Russia posters.
“We will clean Gediminas Avenue of this rubbish, which urges us to call terrorists and negotiate with terrorists,” said Valdas Batkevičius, one of the organisers of the campaign.
Reacting to the outrage, Tomas Balžekas, head of 15min news website and the Baltic News Service, as well as an organiser of the Call Russia campaign, first said that “after the Wagner event, ordinary people’s conversations took on even more meaning” and that “the Call Russia project is run by friends of Ukraine”.
However, he later announced the suspension of the Call Russia advertising campaign.
“What was based on good intentions has led to strong public opposition,” Balžekas said in a press release, adding that the posters in Lithuania will be taken down as soon as possible.
According to him, the second wave of the campaign appeared in the context of the NATO summit to attract the attention of foreign media.
“At the same time, I acknowledge that mistakes have been made in the planning of the communication campaign. I think that the communication should have been clearer, not raising ambiguous ideas as if we are encouraging people to call and negotiate with Putin. I categorically reject such assumptions and intentions,” Balžekas said.
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