Russian column threatened Lithuania with nuclear strike then disappeared hours later

Perspective Analysis

A column signed by Alexander Nosovich appeared on the website of the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on the morning of 25 September 2026. Its headline announced that Russia faced another special military operation, this one very short. The text responded directly to a vote taken three days earlier in Lithuania’s parliament, where 99 deputies supported, 13 opposed and five abstained on advancing a constitutional amendment that would lift the country’s existing ban on stationing weapons of mass destruction or foreign military bases on its territory. Nosovich, identified across the reporting as a freelance commentator and chief editor of the portal RuBaltic.ru with past ties to individuals connected to the Kremlin, argued that European states were pushing the placement of non-conventional weapons on Russia’s borders and had chosen Lithuania as a willing nuclear depot. He wrote that Russia could forgo ground troops entirely and rely on missiles carrying appropriate warheads. The solution, he stated, would be not merely quick but lightning-fast. Lithuania itself he described as a suicidal country without brains, a useful idiot and a small but proud kamikaze in Russia’s near abroad.

The column remained on the RIA Novosti site for roughly three hours before it was removed. In its place appeared an editor’s note stating that the article by the freelance author did not correspond to the editorial board’s views, the agency’s editorial policy or the official policy of the Russian Federation. The original text had already circulated on social media and prompted public alarm in Lithuania. A military spokesperson there issued a statement that such hostile rhetoric was a common Russian practice intended to intimidate neighbors and that no additional action should be taken as a result.

The same day, President Vladimir Putin addressed European concerns about possible direct confrontation with Russia. He stated that many in Europe expected an attack and were therefore preparing for war, but he emphasized that Russia had no plans for military action against Europe and that there was no reason for any such plans. Putin also mocked a recent statement by Estonia’s defense minister about repelling any attack and dismissed Western fears while offering a pessimistic view of prospects for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

The Lithuanian constitutional change is not yet complete. Two further parliamentary votes are required, spaced at least three months apart, with the next scheduled for 6 October 2026 and a final vote in January 2027; each needs a two-thirds majority of all 141 deputies. Lithuanian officials have stressed that the amendment itself does not constitute a decision to host nuclear weapons, only the removal of a legal obstacle that could otherwise limit future participation in NATO nuclear deterrence arrangements. Earlier, on 11 September, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had warned that if Lithuania stationed nuclear weapons aimed at Russia, its territory would become a target for Russian nuclear forces.

Geographic factors receive repeated mention in the accounts of the incident. Lithuania sits on NATO’s eastern flank between the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus. The Suwalki Gap, the narrow land corridor connecting Poland to Lithuania, forms the only overland link between the Baltic states and the rest of the alliance. Over the past three decades Russia has lost much of its former strategic position around the Baltic Sea as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined NATO, followed later by Finland and Sweden. Nosovich argued that any conflict in the region would, because of this geography, necessarily be shorter and different in character from the war in Ukraine.

The five outlets that covered the episode within the 24-hour detection window all record the same core sequence of publication, explicit nuclear threat language, rapid deletion and official disavowal by RIA Novosti. They also all locate the column’s trigger in the Lithuanian parliamentary vote of 22 September. Three of them quote the Lithuanian military’s reassurance that the remarks required no special response. Three note Nosovich’s institutional affiliations and past Kremlin-linked assignments. The accounts diverge in the weight each places on particular elements rather than in the underlying facts.

The Swiss outlet Watson frames the deletion as a potential embarrassment for the Kremlin and draws on reporting from the Russian exile medium Medusa to establish the timeline and the author’s proximity to official circles. The Serbian outlet Blic foregrounds the phrasing of a short nuclear war directed at an EU member state and records earlier Russian warnings from Peskov. The Moldovan outlet Timpul devotes particular space to the lightning-fast character of the proposed strike and to Nosovich’s documented connections within Russian foreign-policy structures. The Israeli outlet Ynet places the episode alongside Putin’s same-day denial of any intention to attack Europe. The Persian-language diaspora portal Gooya News, operating outside Iran, presents the episode primarily as an instance of inconsistent Russian state-media messaging that was retracted within hours and questions whether Europe should be alarmed.

No outlet in the set carried an on-the-record statement from the Russian government beyond the RIA Novosti editor’s note and Putin’s general remarks. No outlet carried a Lithuanian government statement beyond the military spokesperson’s reassurance already quoted in the original column’s aftermath. The absence of direct voices from either principal capital is consistent across the coverage and leaves the episode as an instance of unofficial escalation rhetoric that was publicly disowned the same day.