Does Lithuania really want a war? The Kremlin has pointed to eloquent statistics, but omitted an important detail

The Global Peace Index was recently published, in which Lithuania ranked 36th out of 163 countries evaluated in the world, thus ranking in the fourth part of the countries evaluated with the highest peace index. However, Kremlin spokesmen managed to see Lithuania’s special attitude towards world peace.

In Lithuanian, the news portal Sputnik Lietuva, which announces the Kremlin news, announced that, according to the Global Peace Index, Lithuania is one of the least peace-loving countries in the world in Europe.

And if you don’t love peace, then the narratives that the Kremlin constantly repeats that Lithuania should only incite conflict should be confirmed, right? But taking a few minutes to check the actual situation creates a slightly different picture, and he says even more about Russia.

The index is not just about war

The Global Peace Index has been compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace in Australia for many years. The index is based on a series of qualitative and quantitative criteria, many of which, contrary to what may appear at first glance, have little to do with the war.

The rating assesses a total of 23 components, some of which are directly related to the justice system and the internal security of the country: the number of murders, police or other forces and prisoners, political repression, violent crimes or protests, and more .

The other part consists of military and diplomatic components: number of troops, military spending, arms exports, participation in military conflicts, relations with neighboring countries, etc.

The ranking is based on a score of 1 to 5 for countries in various areas, followed by an overall score based on the same ranking principle. The lower the score, the higher the state of peace. Iceland, a NATO ally, has the best rating (1,078 points) and Afghanistan the worst, above 3.6.

Lithuania had the worst performance (ie, exceeded the average of 2.5 points) in four areas. Three of these areas are directly related to the problems of the Lithuanian justice and internal security system: the perception of public crime, the number of homicides and prisoners. In addition, the researchers gave our country the worst score – three – in the area of ​​relations with neighboring countries.

However, even the reception of a troika when evaluating relations with neighboring countries is not exceptional: our neighbors were also evaluated in the same area of ​​relations with neighbors: Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus. Only Poland can boast of receiving two points. At the same time, the researchers themselves gave Russia a maximum of five points, that is, they rated it the worst.

Russia is even surpassed by North Korea

A selective list of European countries was chosen to convey Lithuania’s message of unloved peace: it consisted of the countries of the European Union, the Western Balkans, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland.

This was done, probably not by accident, because the neighbors of Lithuania, Belarus and Russia (also in Europe), look much worse in the classification. Neighboring Belarus is ranked 94th in the ranking, while Russia is overall at the bottom of the list – 154th out of 163 countries ranked. Interestingly, Russia has even been overtaken by countries like Sudan, Pakistan, and North Korea.

It is true that the study authors note that the greatest improvement in recent years has occurred in the Russia-Eurasia region, but it has not been uniform: Russia and Eurasia registered improvements in the statistics on active conflicts and security, but the results were worse in militarization. .

Primitive manipulation

“It can be assumed that the authors of this manipulation really hoped that the readers did not delve deeper, so much more that even the infographers who presented contradicted their claim.

Apparently it was thought that no one would really bother to look at the original data and compare, for example, where on the list Russia is. I would call it a crude and primitive manipulation, ”said Dr. Delfi, professor at the Faculty of Communication at Vilnius University. Viktor Denisenko.

Contrary to what is indicated in the material presented by Sputink Lietuva, the 36th place for Lithuania is not special either. Lithuania is 21 of the 28 countries of the European Union and 20 of the 30 countries of NATO.
Next to Lithuania is neighboring Poland in 29th place, Estonia in 30th place and Latvia in 34th place. The state of peace in all these countries is considered high.

Neighboring Belarus is included among the average states, when at that time Russia falls into the worst circle: the countries of very low peace.

Although the very message that Lithuania does not love peace may seem short and not worth paying more attention to, its brevity and simplicity are purposely chosen to mislead the recipient of information who does not delve too deeply into the real situation.

“The form of display can potentially be more compelling. Again, it can be assumed that more attention is paid to visualization by those readers who want to get information quickly and easily, that is, at least at some point they are not inclined to delve into the text or simply do not have the time. .

Therefore, it can be said that this manipulation was potentially aimed at a hurried, profound or simply lazy reader, ”said V. Denisenko.