“The Lithuanian transport and logistics business is currently facing well-coordinated large scale disinformation attacks. There are periodical efforts of organising various events, fraudulent letters are sent to the European Parliament, EU institutions and major Western businesses and this is just part of a large scale campaign against Lithuanian businesses,” a joint communique by the Lithuanian national road haulier association Linava, the International Transport and Logistics Alliance and the Lithuanian Carriers Union indicates.
The businessmen highlight that a wide range of measures are employed for spreading disinformation: social media, chat platforms, the distribution of proclamations, fraudulent letters.
“What is also concerning is that the names of Lithuanian trade unions, with whom Lithuanian haulier associations try to maintain constant social dialogue, are fraudulently used when spreading disinforming content,” Romas Austinskas, the president of the association Linava says.
He informed that this February, three letter-petitions reached the European Parliament and in May – the European Parliament Petitions Committee, with return addresses leading to trade unions operating in Lithuania. In all three letters, false information is indicated, seeking to undermine the Lithuanian transport business.
R. Austinskas informed that in response to the situation the management of the Solidarumas trade union sent an official denying letter to responsible individuals in the European Parliament, where the union denies sending such a letter and its name was used fraudulently. The petition was ruled as being unacceptable by the European Parliament Petition Committee.
The businessmen do not dismiss the possibility that the increased attention to the transport businesses of Lithuania and other peripheral EU states is linked to efforts to influence political decisions related to the mobility package. According to R. Austinskas, drivers also report similar cases, with inciting leaflets being distributed in truck stops across EU countries. “The content in all of them is similar – false information is spread in Russian, English, French and German about how supposedly drivers work in slave-like conditions in Lithuanian transport companies. This situation harms not only Lithuanian transport business, but also undermines the country’s image,” R. Austinskas says.
The businessmen are also greatly concerned over how the typically anonymously acting individuals’ affiliations potentially lead to our neighbour in the East. R. Austinskas indicates that operations are broadly performed in strategic Lithuanian markets in the West where Lithuanian hauliers perform high volume international transportation operations. “Lithuanian transport and logistics companies have recorded over the past year a number of attempts to organise unsanctioned drivers’ strikes and other provocative events,” R. Austinskas said.
According to him, by employing social media and messaging apps that are popular in Russia and Belarus, there are attempts to organise a Russian-speaking drivers’ protest in Berlin. “Businesses are greatly concerned by how drivers are urged to send confidential company data such as CMRs, contracts and other documents to indicated contacts,” R. Austinskas says.
