Linas Jegelevičius
Of 100 thousand persons that Russia has placed in its wanted list, in the latest addition, 29 come from Lithuania. Culture Minister Simonas Kairys, former Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius and Klaipėda Mayor Arvydas Vaitkus are among the most recognized faces in the new list.
Russian independent news site Mediazona was the first to report that on Tuesday, the 13th of February. It said it collected publicly available information on wanted persons from the Russian Interior Ministry’s database.
Lithuanian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, the 14th of February, handed a protest note to a representative of the Russian Embassy regarding the Moscow decision. The note urges to “immediately end” the politically motivated persecution of the Lithuanian citizens, the press release says.
The Ministry accentuates that the inclusion of Lithuanian officials
in the wanted list breaches accepted norms of international law and should be viewed as an attempt to falsify the past, and disrespect Lithuania’s historical memory.
The Russian Interior Ministry database does not, however, indicate under which legal articles the search was declared. However, the Kremlin announced that it had placed a number of Baltic officials on the wanted list for what it deems “hostile actions” against Moscow.
“These are people who are taking hostile actions against historical memory and our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted.
The cause of Moscow’s fury must stem from Lithuania’s desovietisation law which came into force last year and paved way for the removal of Soviet-era monuments, memorials, street names, and other objects from public spaces.
The prohibitions, however, do not apply to museums, archives, libraries when organising exhibitions, informing the public about totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and their consequences, and using such objects and information for the purposes of education, scholarship, professional art, and collecting.
Speaking to BNS, a Lithuanian newswire, S. Kairys, the culture minister, included in the list, says that Russia is “continuing to fight against democracy and human rights.”
“I’m glad that my work to dismantle the ruins of Sovietisation has not gone unnoticed,”
Kairys told the agency.
“On a serious note, the regime is doing what it has always done: it is trying to stifle any breath of freedom, to fight against democracy, against human rights and freedoms, and to continue to create its own story that does not fit any facts or logic,” he emphasised.
According to the minister, culture, heritage, and memory “are also a war zone in which imperialism pursues its own goals”.
“My duty as culture minister is to prevent the achievement of these malicious goals, to prevent the distortion of these themes both in Lithuania and in the international arena,” Kairys said.
Later, the minister told journalists that he had learned about the case from the media.
Following the announcement of Russia’s wanted list, the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Garbrielius Landsbergis, told Lithuanian media that he first learned about it while he was in the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee yet.
Asked about the Lithuanian names in it, he said: “This is completely new information. If we had such opportunities, it would be necessary to check its authenticity… As I understand, it comes from a leaked database, it is not official information,” G. Landsbergis told reporters in the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas on Tuesday, the 13th of February.
In his words, it is “political assessment,
a kind of reward for people who support Ukraine and support the fight of good against evil.”
The Foreign minister, however, cautions that those included in the wanted list should take it seriously and and should plan and adjust their travels accordingly.
“Juts because some of third countries may decide to go forward with executing the Russian arrest warrant,” he underscored.
Former Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius says he has been on the list for several years, even before the start of the Kremlin’s large-scale war in Ukraine.
“The Kremlin doesn’t like the way I treated their delegation in Geneva at the Human Rights Council, nor that I moved Soviet sculptures in Vilnius, nor that I was able to abandon the Moscow House project in Vilnius, nor that I trolled their ambassador when he invited me to the occupied Crimea…” R. Šimašius wrote on Facebook.
Meanwhile, Defence minister Arvydas Anušauskas shrugged off the news, saying that he will definitely not going to travel to Russia.
“However, those who have fallen in the eyes of the regime should think carefully plan their travels…
Civilized international institutions do not blindly follow Russia’s wishes – Interpol knows these tricks by Russia and, of course, no one from normal states, not authoritarian, not totalitarian, is going to comply with any of Russia’s demands,” he told Lithuanian media.
However, Lithuanian press notes, that Latvia has an unpleasant experience of the kind.
Former Member of Latvian Parliament Seimas Vyacheslav Dombrovskis, a staunch supporter of dismantling of Soviet monuments, having come to to work to Kyrgyzstan as a guest lecturer was compelled to flee the country with the help of top-level diplomats, when it turned out that he was wanted by the local police.
Russia’s wanted list also includes chairperson of the Vilnius Council’s Historical Memory Commission, Kamilė Šeraitė-Gogelienė, member of the Vilnius Council, Violeta Podolskaitė, former Vilnius councillors Žilvinas Šilgalis, Vytautas Kašėta and Mantas Stulgaitis, also Klaipėda Vice Mayor Vaida Raugelė, former director of administration, now council member Saulius Budinas, former Klaipėda Mayor, social democrat Vytautas Grubliauskas and former Vice Mayor Arvydas Cesiulis, as well as the judges who made the decision in the January 13th case, like Ainora Kornelija Macevičienė, Virginija Pakalnytė-Tamošiūnaitė and Artūras Šumskas, lawyer, former prosecutor of the General Prosecutor’s Office Simonas Slapšinskas is included, too.
Follow us on Facebook and X!