Ingrida Šimonytė, the prime minister of Lithuania, has no earthly reason to emulate Russian President Vladimir Putin — but an embarrassing choice of campaign slogan for upcoming presidential elections has put her on the back foot.

The Lithuanian leader’s pitch to voters — “Strong President, Strong Country” — mirrors Putin’s boast of “Strong President, Strong Russia” from his 2018 presidential campaign, which featured a speech to parliament in which he played a CGI video depicting advanced Russian weapons bombing Florida.

Šimonytė on Sunday denied stealing Putin’s thunder, maintaining…