THE USE AND ABUSE OF HISTORY BY RUSSIAN EMBASSIES ON TWITTER: THE CASE OF THE BALTIC STATES

In recent years, Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFA) throughout the world have employed digital diplomacy to craft and manage their nation’s image and soft power. This chapter takes the opposite view and explores attempts by one nation to besmirch the image of another. Drawing on the literature of strategic narratives, the authors analyse Russia’s use of digital diplomacy to refashion the contemporary image of the Baltic states by disseminating revisionist historical narratives. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of more than 2,500 tweets published on Russian digital channels during the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II (WWII) reveals that Russia has used Twitter to craft narratives aiming to undermine the Baltic states’ internal cohesion and to fracture their relationship with their European and NATO allies. The study contributes theoretically by explaining the strategic role of historical narratives as an instrument of Russian foreign policy. Empirically, the chapter contextualises the importance of historical narratives in support of Russian geopolitical ambitions towards not only prospective, but also existing NATO members.