One thing has become certain: at the heart of this shifting geopolitical landscape sits Russia.The world might be looking at its actions vis-à-vis Ukraine, but Russia’s ambitions are truly long-range in an effort to have a say in emerging powers, African nations, and the Global South.Thus, two different events-in one, the BRICS summit in Kazan; in the other, the continuous strategic involvement of Russia in such regions as Libya-have underlined Moscow’s wider goals: challenging the current world order dominated by Western institutions like NATO, the EU, and the dollar-based financial system.

From a regional perspective, this staunch support of Ukraine emanating from Lithuania simply illustrates that it knows what it is up against from Russia. For countries like Lithuania, which formed the outer rim of the Soviet Empire, the geo-politics of post-Soviet diplomacy was always going to be a difficult one; and if events in Europe are anything to go by, then Africa, the Middle East, and more recently BRICS present the same contradictions in Russian foreign policy: disrupt, expand, influence.
Russia’s Global Disruption Strategy