Week in Lithuania | Būtingė terminal oil spill; embezzlement amount by investment fund partner concealed

Last week, Cabinet approved LPG excise duty cut to 41 euros, prosecutors ended probe into defence minister’s disclosure of info on tanks
Officials prefer not to disclose amount embezzled by investment fund partner
Lithuanian law-enforcement officials on Friday, the 9th of February, refused to disclose the total amount of money gambled away by Sarunas Stepukonis, a former BaltCap Infrastructure Fund partner. Rolandas Kiskis, director of the Lithuanian Financial Crime Investigation Service (FCIS), promised to answer the question later. “We will certainly answer, but not at this stage,” he told a press conference. According to him, this is not secret information, but all the data received must be summarized before it can be made public. Simonas Gustainis, a managing partner at BaltCap, says that the amount of claims against Stepukonis will exceed 30 million euros, adding that the money could have been spent not only on gambling.
President hits out at national defence system’s drone approach
President Gitanas Nauseda on Thursday, the 8th of February, criticised the national defence system’s approach to the development of drone capabilities in Lithuania, adding that the strategy for the development of drone capabilities could also be discussed by the State Defence Council. He vowed to discuss the situation with the defence minister and the chief of defence. The Lithuanian government has recently started developing its own concept on this issue, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said last week.
Environmental watchdog launches inspection after oil spill at Būtingė terminal
The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) on Wednesday, the 7th of February, confirmed having launched an unscheduled inspection of Orlen Lietuva’s oil refinery following an oil spill at its Būtingė crude terminal in the Baltic Sea. The EPD said the exact amount of pollutants released into the sea and the environmental impact was yet to be determined. The Lithuanian Armed Forces said earlier on Wednesday, the 7th of February, that they were assisting in the clean-up of oil pollutants in the Baltic Sea. According to the military, Orlen Lietuva informed them that a mooring line had broken during tanker loading operations at the terminal, causing a hose coupling to disconnect and around 300 litres of oil to spill into the water. According to preliminary information, the spill was about two kilometre long and half a kilometre wide.
Justice Ministry recognizes Orthodox Christians under Constantinople
Lithuania’s Justice Ministry has granted legal recognition to the Orthodox Christian community subordinate to Constantinople, which allows it to receive state funding. The ministry decided that the exarchate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Lithuania meets the legal requirements of a new or re-established traditional religious community and can be registered in the Register of Legal Entities, Paulius Žeimys, spokesman for the justice minister, said on Wednesday, the 7th of February. The ministry made the decision after looking into the documents received with the notification of the establishment of the traditional religious community. Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople announced his intention to set up a church structure in Lithuania during his visit to the country in March after he reinstated five priests who used to belong to the Lithuanian Orthodox Church that is subordinate to the Patriarchate of Moscow. The establishment of the new church structure was completed in early January with the arrival of Estonian priest Justinus Kiviloo, head of the new exarchate.
Prosecutors end probe into defence minister’s disclosure of info on tanks
The Prosecutor General’s Office has dropped its pre-trial investigation into suspicions that Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas disclosed classified information when he made public details about Lithuania’s intentions to purchase tanks for its armed forces. The Organized Crime and Corruption Investigation Department’s prosecutor terminated the pre-trial investigation, launched last summer, on Monday after concluding that no criminal offence had been committed, the office said in a press release on Wednesday, the 7th of February. The decision was based on the conclusions of the competent authorities and special commissions that the information made public by Anušauskas last July is not to be regarded as a state or official secret. However, the pre-trial investigation found that Anušauskas failed to adhere to the agreement among the participants of the State Defence Council meeting of the 24th of July, 2023 not to make public certain information until a certain time. Nevertheless, this cannot be considered as an action warranting criminal liability, according to the press release. The prosecutor’s findings have been referred to the parliamentary Commission for Ethics and Procedures for its opinion on whether the minister violated the State Politicians’ Code of Conduct by disregarding the agreement.
Cabinet approves LPG excise duty cut to 41 euros
Lithuania’s government on Wednesday, the 7th of February, approved a proposal to reduce the excise duty on liquefied petroleum gas for households and businesses to 41 euro per ton. The amendments to the Law on Excise Taxes will be submitted to the Seimas and lawmakers will be asked to consider them as a matter of urgency, which the Seimas is expected to do next week. The bill proposes applying the reduced excise duty of 41 euros on LPG used by households for home heating, as well as on gas cylinders and for businesses using it as heating fuel. From January, LPG is subject to an excise duty of 304.1 euros, excluding VAT. The previous rate was 41 euros. Meanwhile, a separate proposal is to reinstate the reduced excise duty on diesel, 60 euros per 1 000 litres, for use by agricultural companies and farmers in trucks and other vehicles. The state budget is estimated to lose 9.6 million euros in revenue because of the proposed reduced excise duties this year (from April), and would further lose 14 million euros in 2025 and 2026.
No decisions on ambassadors yet made
Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said after a meeting on Wednesday, the 7th of February, with President Gitanas Nausėda that the conversation was “constructive, normal,” and that a “comprehensive” solution to the problem of ambassadorial appointments is being sought, but has not been reached yet. The president’s office and the Foreign Ministry have been at odds on a number of ambassadorial appointments for some time now. The ministry says that the appointment of 13 Lithuanian envoys, including to Poland, is currently frozen. The institutions are also divided on whether Eitvydas Bajarūnas, the ambassador to the UK, and Deividas Matulionis, the ambassador to NATO, can stay in their posts.
NSGK proposes closing Lavoriškės, Raigardas checkpoints
The Parliament Seimas’ National Security Commission (NSGK) has proposed suspending the movement of goods, transport and persons through the Lavoriškės and Raigardas border checkpoints as of the 1st of March, the government said on Tuesday, the 6th of February. Lithuania closed two of its six border checkpoints with Belarus – Šumskas and Tverečius – last summer. If the government approves the closure of Lavoriškės and Raigardas, only two checkpoints – Medininkai and Šalčininkai – will remain open. The commission also proposed to restrict the pick-up and drop-off of passengers at the Kena railway border checkpoint to tackle the problem of passengers on transit trains to Kaliningrad disembarking in Lithuania with documents issued by any EU member state for travel within the bloc. The government is also to decide on proposals to gradually reduce the number of permits issued to Belarusian and Lithuanian carriers operating regular international bus passenger services, and to halt the movement of cyclists and pedestrians across the border with Belarus.
Transport minister proposes to Polish counterpart to launch regular train to Ukraine
Lithuanian Transport Minister Marius Skuodis met with his Polish counterpart Dariusz Klimczak in Warsaw on Monday, the 5th of February, and proposed launching a regular freight train service to Ukraine. “Our countries’ joint efforts to plan new logistics routes with Ukraine are now critical. Close cooperation between Lithuania and Poland is particularly necessary to improve connectivity between the Baltic and Central European countries and, at the same time, to improve the ease of traveling and transporting goods,” Skuodis said in a statement released by his ministry. The two ministers also discussed the joint development of new freight corridors between Baltic seaports and Ukraine, as well as joint transport infrastructure projects.
Follow us on Facebook and X!