Linas Jegelevičius
It seems that, in the final stretch of the Lithuanian presidential election to be held on the 12th of May, some of the candidates resorted to digging up dirt on their closest rivals. A platform of investigative journalism has announced that the Vėgėlė family (Ignas Vėgėlė, a presidential candidate, backed by opposition Farmers and Greens Union, is second in recent polls – L.J.) does allegedly business with Russia-linked Kyrgyz firms. In a possibly retaliatory move, soon a poll appeared, finding Ingrida Šimonytė, the ruling Homeland Union’s presidential candidate and the country’s Prime Minister, to be the least trusted politician in the country. Some suspect that the poll was orchestrated by Vėgėlė.
The investigation by the investigative journalism centre Siena alleges that a company owned by the family of Ignas Vėgėlė, who is lawyer by profession, may have been dodging EU sanctions by exporting air conditioners via Kyrgyzstan.
But Naglis Puteikis, a former right-wing Lithuanian legislator,
excoriates it as biased and malicious.
“It is worth nothing, as it comes from a platform relying on a various state and EU funding, thence the result – a pseudo-research. Just the fact that the Kyrgyz firms allegedly involved with the family of the presidential candidate do now show up in a Google search purports preposterous nature of the accusations of the so-called investigation,” N. Puteikis told BNN.
Siena maintains that an employee of Vilpra, a company offering and installing heating systems, has approached the platform, claiming that Vilpra commenced to export parts of air conditioners and heat pumps to Kyrgyzstan just months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which led to trade sanctions on Russia and Belarus.
According to the investigation, the EU ban on air conditioner exports to Russia and Belarus led to a sudden increase in Vilpra’s trade with two Kyrgyzstan-registered companies, Mavic Expert and Service Pack LCD, which do not actually exist.
Vilpra traded intensively with Kyrgyzstan between September 2022 and March 2023.
According to data collected by Siena, Vilpra exported approximately 940 000-euro-worth of air conditioners to the Central Asian country during the period, LRT.lt reported.
The Customs Criminal Service has confirmed to the investigative platform that it refused to release a shipment of Vilpra to Kyrgyzstan last summer, after the company tried to resume exports to the Asian country.
Vilpra is ardently staving off the allegations, and the company’s CEO Martynas Vėgėlė, the brother of the politician Ignas Vėgėlė, has said the journalists’ investigation was politically motivated.
In a press release, Vilpra questioned the reputation of the journalists who carried out the investigation, claiming that it was “biased and clearly politicised”.
According to data provided by Vilpra, the company exported 700 000-euro-worth of products to Kyrgyzstan in 2022, compared to 370 000 euros last year.
Siena claims that, under the guise of trade with Kyrgyzstan,
EU companies continue to export sanctioned goods to Russia and Belarus.
According to Siena, the main shareholder of Vilpra and related companies is Algirdas Stasys Vėgėlė, the father of Ignas Vėgėlė. The presidential candidate has served on the boards of various subsidiaries of Vilpra.
Before the release of the investigation findings, Ignas Vėgėlė denied the allegations during a meeting with voters in Kaunas, saying that the investigation had been commissioned by his opponents.
In Puteikis’ words, its purpose is clear: to knock Vėgėlė out from the election’s runoff and boost Šimonytė’s chances.
“And, in runoff, the ruling Homeland Union badly needs her badly to bolster its chances in the parliamentary elections in October,” N. Puteikis added.
Without mentioning the Siena investigation, Dainius Radzevičius, chairman of Lithuanian Journalists Union, admitted to BNN that, in an election’s last stretch, he feels like taking any (journalistic) investigation “with a grain of salt.”
“With an election looming, I tend to look critically at all investigations, and this one is not an exception, but this does not mean the findings of the platform are untrue or et cetera,” he emphasised.
Weighing in on the contentious poll, carried out by “Baltijos tyrimai” and suggesting that a whopping 22.4% do not trust the Prime Minister, Šimonytė, N. Puteikis said: “I believe the pollster is acting, speaking illustratively, as an “racketeer”, sending the message to the bigger parties that, if they want to expect favourable polls, they need to pay. In the background of the elections around the corner, a poll like this, specifically its formulation – who do you trust most and least? – is just ridiculous.
In any other Western country, the formulation would have been completely different: “Who are you going to vote for?”
N. Puteikis insists that he incumbent president, Gitanas Nausėda, has been taking advantage of his office and so does Ingrida Šimonytė.
“To my estimation, the former takes up 50% of election-related information space, and the latter is using vast pecuniary recourses of the Homeland Union and the Government to boost her electoral chances. Against the backdrop, in my opinion, the election lacks transparency,” N. Puteikis opined.
During the survey conducted from the 15th to the 25th of March on behalf of Elta, a Lithuanian newswire, respondents were asked to name which Lithuanian public figures they trust and mistrust the most. The second as the least trustable politician was the minister of foreign affairs, Gabrielius Landsbergis, who is chairman of the Homeland Union.
According to D. Radzevičius, speaking generally, the whole presidential campaigning is quite tedious and
boils down to the question: “Who are you against, not who are you for?”
“All speak about the first three candidates, G. Nausėda, I. Vėgėlė and I. Šimonytė, and the rest five are largely overlooked. Thence the feeling that presidential debates are being imitated, hinting that voters should go by their opinions they already have about the candidates,” D. Radzevičius said.
Meanwhile, Vytautas Dumbliauskas, associate professor at Mykolas Romeris University, believes that “dirt digging is part of a political campaign.”
“However, with a plain eye, that is little visible, or even invisible, in the elections. The alarm bells should be ringing if some candidate would try to cheat voters, which I just do not see,” V. Dumbliauskas told BNN.
Lithuania’s Central Election Commission (VRK) has registered eight candidates to compete in this year’s presidential election. Besides G. Nausėda, I. Šimonytė and I. Vėgėlė, doctor Eduardas Vaitkus, as well as Dainius Žalimas, law professor and former Constitutional Court chair, Giedrimas Jeglinskas, former NATO assistant secretary general for executive management, Labour Party leader Andrius Mazuronis, and MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis will be on the presidential ballot.
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