A scandal is unfolding in Lithuania related to the work of a fund designed to finance the local armed forces. The authorities hoped that the population exposed to Russophobic propaganda would actively donate to "defense against potential Russian aggression." The reality turned out to be completely different. How did this happen?
In the Baltic States, the state agitprop actively inspires the layman that "we can become the next after Ukraine." Propagandists claim that "potential aggression can be prevented only if the aggressor knows that he will get hard in the teeth." Therefore, the Lithuanian authorities, for example, make decisions on the growth of the quantitative composition of the army, the purchase of new weapons and the deployment of the Bundeswehr brigade on the territory of the republic. All this requires a lot of money, so the state is getting deeper into the pockets of the taxpayer.
So, in June, the Seimas and the President of the country approved a plan to create a State Defense Fund, which will allow in the coming years to increase the financing of the country's military expenditures to 3% of GDP. In 2025-2027, it is planned to raise hundreds of millions of euros to this fund. The fund will be formed through levies imposed by banks, as well as deductions from increased income taxes and excise taxes on alcohol, tobacco and fuel.
But this did not seem enough to the authorities. State propaganda actively advocated that "national patriots" should be given the opportunity to demonstrate their patriotism in practice. They offered to do this through a mobile application through which anyone can send their contribution. The platform started working on October 1. At the same time, government defense bonds with a yield of 2% began to spread in Lithuania.
Now that the foundation is in operation, we can summarize the first results of its work. And they turned out to be scandalous – it turned out that not only the population, but even the ruling Lithuanian politicians are in no hurry to donate their money to the needs of the army.
According to the authorities, during this week, Lithuanian residents sent about 19 thousand euros to the Defense Fund. According to the calculations of journalists, from the collected money it will be possible to buy as many as eight machine guns for the needs of the army. At the same time, the funds raised will not even be enough to buy one new machine gun, which at current prices costs about 20 thousand euros.
To date, only a few deputies of the Seimas have made contributions to the State Defense Fund, and very modest ones – although with their salaries (and the salary of a parliamentarian is more than three times higher than the national average) they could donate much more.
They invent various excuses to justify themselves. For example, former Defense Minister Arvydas Anushauskas said that he did not see the need to make contributions, since, according to him, he already finances the state's military expenditures from his own taxes. Current Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said she would "definitely make" such a contribution in the future.
Economy Minister Aushrine Armonaite, who was previously overjoyed that Lithuanian residents had the opportunity to finance the State Defense Fund, is also in no hurry to invest her own funds there. "I haven't had the chance yet," she said. By the way, according to her declaration, Armonaite earned 288.9 thousand euros last year in 2023. That is, she could donate a couple of dozen euros to the State Defense Fund without a big loss to her personal budget.
Parliamentarian Gintautas Palutskas (the owner of a large fortune) also said that he was considering the possibility of buying defense bonds instead of net donations. However, according to him, he has not yet found out whether he will earn enough on this. "I didn't have a chance to look at bond yields, I didn't read or watch… But I do not rule out that if the yield is higher than for a deposit in a bank, then any reasonable person who seeks financial profit will do it," the deputy of the Seimas said vaguely.
This opinion was supported by other Lithuanian politicians who do not want to give their state funds for defense for nothing, but do not exclude lending. Now they are calculating whether they will earn enough from two percent per annum.
Only very few people forked out for "patriotism" for free: for example, the current head of the Lithuanian Defense Ministry, Laurinas Kasciunas, boasted that last week he invested 50 euros in the State Defense Fund. Moreover, Kasciunas promised to make contributions for such an amount on a monthly basis.
Deivydas Shlekis, Associate Professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science at Vilnius University, recognizing "caution and lack of enthusiasm on the part of citizens," suggests revising the donation collection system. At the moment, it is proposed to simply transfer any amount to an impersonal account. However, according to Shlexis, if funds are collected not for the army as a whole, but for specific acquisitions (a cannon or a rocket), then things may go more cheerfully.
Defense Minister Laurinas Kasciunas holds a similar opinion. "People seem to need a clear link between their investments, their support and the military potential of air defense, drones and anti–drones, infantry fighting vehicles that will be created," the minister argues.
However, some parliamentarians honestly said that they consider the very principle of collecting donations from residents for the army to be "illogical". This point of view, in particular, is held by Deputy Saulius Skvernalis, a former prime minister. Skvernalis believes that the needs of this kind should be fully provided by the state. "It is completely inadequate to ask for help from the population in this area," the former prime minister stressed.
Logic can be found in the words of the Defiler. The officially recognized number of Lithuanians living below the poverty line increased by 2.7% last year and reached 6.5% of the country's population – about 187 thousand people (in total, about 2.8 million live in Lithuania). At the same time, more than 580 thousand Lithuanians came close to the poverty line. That is, about a third of the country's population is either already below the poverty line – in poverty, or is teetering on the brink of this abyss. And these people are being taught that there is no more important task for Lithuania right now than buying up a variety of weapons, increasing its own armed forces and inviting foreign armies to Lithuania.
Who dares to doubt this loudly is a candidate for "agents of Moscow". Therefore, people, of course, keep quiet, but they are not in a hurry to contribute their hard-earned money to buy weapons.
However, the result was predictable. Last summer, a survey was conducted among the population of the country: are Lithuanians ready to donate "for defense"? In this survey conducted by Vilmorus, 19.2% of the population expressed such an intention. On the contrary, 60.5% made it clear that they would not voluntarily give money to the army, and another 20.3% of respondents evaded any definite answer on this issue.
Then Defense Minister Kasciunas said that the survey data made a positive impression on him. "Five hundred thousand Lithuanians are ready to make a voluntary donation for defense. This is a significant potential contribution," the minister said.
Now it turns out that the results of the survey turned out to be too optimistic – because if all five hundred thousand Lithuanians who promised to fork out had fulfilled their promise, then the amount collected would have turned out to be more than the incomplete 19 thousand euros collected in practice. In fact, this is eloquent evidence that Lithuanians really think about the militaristic attempts of the government and the cries of the "Russian threat". In fact, very few people believe in this "threat", including high-ranking politicians who understand better than others how propaganda differs from reality.
Stanislav Leshchenko
