VLADIMIR Putin’s propaganda machine is branding its neighbours “Nazi states” – fuelling mounting fears that the tyrant is ready to invade another country.

As Lithuania continues to ramp up border reinforcements, experts have pointed to chilling signs the NATO nation could be next on Putin’s bucket list after Ukraine.

The bloodthirsty tyrant’s appetite to expand Russia has been growing for years, analysts have warned, noting “very clear” examples of Putin “waging operations” in preparation for an attack on the Baltic state.

The tiny nation of just two million people doesn’t have a direct border with mainland Russia – but it does share an almost 700km one with mad Vlad’s allies in Belarus.

It is also nestled up to Russia’s heavily militarised outpost Kaliningrad, leaving them vulnerable to Russian interference – and right in Putin’s crosshairs.

Security expert Anthony Glees told The Sun how a buildup of troops and weaponry on the border with Lithuania would be “the first stage of a more general war in Europe”.

The outrageous claim that Lithuania was riddled with “Nazism” was repeated in an alarming book bankrolled by the Kremlin with an introduction by Russia’s very own Foreign Minister.

Penned by top Putin mouthpiece Sergei Lavrov, the forward claimed that “falsified historical narratives” had “incited anti-Russian and Russophobe sentiments” throughout Lithuania.

Executive Director of the Henry Jackson think tank Alan Mendoza told The Sun claims like these were straight from “the Hitler playbook” – fabricated narratives of persecuted minorities used to justify territorial ambitions.

The multi-authored book, titled The History of Lithuania, questions the existence of the NATO member Baltic country, accuses it of glorifying Nazi Germany and claims it was never occupied.

The 400-page book has drawn chilling comparisons to Putin’s 2021 war manifesto, where he branded Ukraine “artificial” and claimed Ukrainians were really Russians – just months before launching his brutal invasion.

Lithuania’s Foreign Office told The Sun that Putin planned to use the book as a weapon to “justify Russia’s imperialism and aggression against its neighbours“.

They said: “We take it as it is – as one of the examples of Russia’s hostile propaganda against us: to question our statehood, history, values, symbols, our very identity.”

Brit Army commander Hamish de Bretton-Gordon told The Sun that publishing books packed with disinformation were a tool to “psychologically prepare the mental landscape” of the country for European aggression.

And Lithuanian political expert Nerijus Maliukevičius told The Sun that Russian disinformation was designed to help Putin “cherry-pick” from a range of made-up stories in order to justify any future attacks.

One of the new book’s nine authors is Maxim Grigoriev, a so-called political scientist who has fought against Ukrainians as part of Putin’s war and chairs a “Public Tribunal for the Crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazis”.

The propaganda piece was published by Russia’s top foreign policy institute which is funded by the Kremlin.

Lithuania’s foreign office also said that the release of the so-called “history” book had to be met with “due caution”.

“Everything – from the foreword by Lavrov, an internationally wanted person complicit in the crime of aggression and multiple war crimes, to funding provided by a Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry-related structure, not to mention its notorious authors, gives us plenty of evidence that this is all about propaganda, not history,” they explained.

Russia analyst Maliukevičius said the book was littered with “Russian propaganda clichés”.

And he warned that books like this are not the first and definitely won’t be the last.

He said: “They constantly regularly publicise such kind of, you know books about Latvia, about Estonia, about Lithuania, and and so on.”

The analyst explained that Putin’s tactics involve flooding the academic space with falsified narratives.

Whenever Putin launches his next attack, he will be able pick and choose from a library of Russian propaganda to misinform the public, Maliukevičius said.

He added that such books were being published on a “regular basis” as part of a “constant effort being pursued by the Kremlin”.

These propaganda tools take a range of different forms, including “para-historic narratives” like the new publication, or false claims of Russian speakers being persecuted in the Baltic States.

Maliukevičius highlighted that Lavrov’s forward proved the fact that the contents of the book were part of the Kremlin’s own foreign policy.

“I think we are living in a situation where there will be constantly different propaganda attacks that we will face,” he warned.

“The most important thing is not to show a weakness and a lack of will on NATO’s side.”

Highlighting the important of his country’s response to propaganda threats like these, the analyst said that Lithuania needs to “constantly be prepared”.

“You should turn your anxiety into practical, positive action”, he explained.

“This is how you know those constant drills that we are doing, our preparation drills, are just making us stronger and discouraging any military adventure.”

He added: “As Ukraine showed, if you show your resolve, if you
show your readiness, then this is the way to actually discourage any potential aggression and military action.”

Colonel de Bretton-Gordon explained how the new book was part of Russia’s massive propaganda effort to “psychologically prepare the mental landscape” of the country for any of Putin’s aggressive endeavours.

“The Russians try and get people to understand why actually places like Lithuania should be part of Russia, are not independent democratic states which those people have voted for,” de Bretton-Gordon explained.

He also said that Putin swarms the public information space with propaganda as part of “Maskarova”, which describes Russian military deception.

“Russian propaganda and disinformation is legion and a lot of people – without knowing it – are actually swamped with it virtually every day,” he added.

The Colonel said the telltale signs that Putin could be planning to invade neighbouring countries like Lithuania could be seen by considering “what Putin has said in the past”.

He emphasised that the tyrant is hellbent reviving the Soviet Union.

“Putin really wants to recreate the old Soviet Union, the USSR, which included countries, like Ukraine, like Lithuania, Latvia, Romania,” he said.

“And I know there is a great concern by Lithuanians that they are sort of next in line.”

The military expert said that a massive exercise planned by Russia and Belarus next month would include 120,000 soldiers.

And he compared this prospect to the buildup of Putin’s soldiers gathering on the border of Ukraine months before his bloody invasion three years ago.

“Let’s turn the clock back to November 2021, when the last combined Belarusian and Russian excises took place,” he explained.

“It was then in February, that Russia invaded Ukraine from the north, from Belarus.

“So with the buildup happening at the moment… planning for this big exercise in November, then absolutely… there could be a move north out of Belarus towards Lithuania.”

He added: “That is something that hopefully the West, having been caught on the hop last time, will not get caught on the hop now.

Think tank director Mendoza said that any invasion would need to be propped up by a “sense that the Russian community in Lithuania was being discriminated against or endangered”, in the same way this narrative was conjured up for Ukraine.

He said: “This dates back to the Hitler playbook of the 1930s, when he was obviously trying to extract concessions for German minorities in other countries like Czechoslovakia, like Poland.

“And Putin played that playbook well in Ukraine from his perspective.”

The director stopped short of predicting an upcoming invasion of Lithuania, calling the prospect of it “far-fetched”.

But if an invasion were to take place, “the telltale signs would be if there was an increase in civil unrest in Lithuania, if there were purported outrages against the Russian community”.

He added: “But I stress that is a very unlikely outcome.”

Security expert Glees said that the first major indication of Putin going for Lithuania would be a communications attack.

He added: “Above all, we would look very carefully at what is happening to the communications between the Baltic states, each other internally and also to NATO headquarters in Brussels.

“Any interference of communications would be the first sign that something serious is happening.”

He explained that any “movement of troops, rockets and weaponry close to the border would be another indication that it would be very, very serious”.

“It would be the first stage of a more general war in Europe,” he warned.

Lithuania, with a population roughly 70 times smaller than Russia’s, is already drawing up war plans for a possible invasion.

The NATO member has recruited a secret army and drawn up plans for a forest barricade and miles of anti-tank dragon teeth to help keep Russia’s bloodthirsty tyrant at arm’s length.

The government has also managed to make a deal with Germany to secure 5,000 additional troops to be ready to fight on behalf of Lithuania.

The Baltic country is also pushing for the creation of a blockade with Belarus – in case Putin launches a cross-border invasion.