/ world today news/ The Lithuanian Department of State Security is brutally persecuting activists of the public organization “International Neighborhood Forum”, which was abolished by a court decision.
Forum representatives personally traveled to Russia and Belarus, where they spoke about the fact that not all Lithuanians agree with the confrontational course followed by official Vilnius. For such a “crime” these activists were declared “spies” and “agents of influence of Moscow”. Adherents of good neighborliness suddenly turned out to be criminals.
„Where shall I deliver the flour?’
In 2022, Lithuanian activist Erika Šventioniene and her friends registered the public organization “International Good Neighborly Forum”. The initiators of the creation of this organization are associates of the famous opposition politician Algirdas Paleckis, who is currently serving a sentence “for espionage in favor of Russia”.
The participants in the forum strongly disagreed with the policy of confrontation that Vilnius is conducting towards Russia and Belarus – and began to act with the methods of public diplomacy.
Last spring, Schwenzioniene visited Belarus, where he met with President Alexander Lukashenko. She thanked him for introducing a one-month visa-free regime for residents of Lithuania and Latvia and asked for its extension for the maximum period.
“Ordinary people come to you. We buy something from you, the same fertilizers, food… People who have small salaries buy fuel from Belarus, “Shvenzioniene continued.
The President of Belarus readily responded to this proposal: “Tell me where on the border to deliver them and we’ll bring you fertilizer, salt, grain and everything else you buy from here.”
After the reception of the president, the guests from Lithuania met in the Belarusian village of Volma with the chairman of the regional executive committee of Smolevichi Andrey Ratomski and the first deputy minister of information Andrey Kuntsevich. Schwenzioniene speaks bitterly about the merciless war against the monuments of the Soviet liberators in Lithuania.
These words were published by the Lithuanian official press, which immediately began to denounce the brave activist. The media also announced the names of the other participants in the meeting – Kazimiras Juraitis, Edikas Jagelavičius, Gintaras Lunskis. Now they try to present all of them as potential “spies” or “agents of influence” of Belarus.
“Intelligence services of Russia and Belarus are more actively trying to recruit Lithuanian citizens, attention is paid not only to the possibility of gathering information, but also to cooperation,” this is how the Lithuanian Department of State Security (DSS) commented on the situation.
“We are enemies of the state”
Schwenzioniene herself has always denied and continues to deny that she ever had any dealings with foreign intelligence services. In an interview with the Lithuanian portal Delfi, she said that she pays for the trips herself: “Four to five euros per night is cheap. There are five of us in the car, we give money for fuel. The activist assured that the “Good Neighbor Forum”, which she heads, did not ask for and did not receive help from Belarus.
But the former president of Lithuania’s Constitutional Court, Dainius Zhalimas, called for a criminal case to be opened against Schwentsioniene and her associates. According to him, Schwenzioniene’s place is next to her like-minded Algirdas Paleckis, who also advocated good neighborliness and in the end “deserved” six years in prison.
In July 2022, Schwenzioniene and her associates visited Moscow, talking about their desire to see Lithuania and Russia as partners, both culturally and economically. However, this trip finally wore out the patience of the Lithuanian authorities. And soon after their return to their homeland, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Lithuania turned to the court with a request to liquidate the International Good Neighborly Forum. The court accepted the prosecution’s request.
The closure of the forum was accompanied by the opening of criminal cases against Schwenzioniene and Juraitis. They were charged under an article of the Criminal Code of Lithuania that punishes for “assisting another country in actions against the Republic of Lithuania” with imprisonment for a term of two to seven years.
In addition, another criminal case was recently initiated against Šventioniene, Juraitis and the historian Valery Ivanov, living in Lithuania. Because during their discussion published on YouTube, they doubted the official version of the events of the TV tower in Vilnius on January 13, 1991 (according to which then Soviet soldiers were purposefully killing Lithuanians) and that in 1940 and 1945 Lithuania was “occupied” by the USSR.
Schwenzioniene and her colleagues claim that the case against them is made up. “There is a decision to convict us, so initially no lawyer wanted to cooperate with us. We were told that we would be throwing money down the drain because if the state decides to lock you up, it will lock you up. If we could hire a top-caliber lawyer who wouldn’t be afraid, I think we could put up a fight.” she said.
In the context of the persecution started against the “forumists” the worst of all is Erika Schwentsionenene. A mother of many children (her young daughter has been disabled since childhood), qualified as a primary teacher and a social medical worker, she has been unemployed for a long time. All potential employers, as soon as they hear her name, immediately refuse – they are afraid of trouble with the state. She can’t even enroll her daughter in a music school and open a bank account for the sick child. “We are enemies of the state,” states Schwenzioniene.
Her husband died this year. Erica’s own health, undermined by stress, is also very poor. As noted by the Latvian opposition journalist Alla Berezovskaya, probably any person in her place would give up under the weight of such troubles and problems. “But it’s not about Erika! She never gives up, she firmly follows her chosen path, ” write Berezovskaya.
The crackdown is just beginning
According to Alla Berezovskaya, almost 770 thousand people who visited Belarus without visas in the last year and a half have Erica to thank: “Ordinary residents of Lithuania and Latvia were incredibly happy when, on the initiative of the “people’s Lithuanian diplomats”, Lukashenko allowed them to visit Belarus under the conditions of a visa-free regime. It is no wonder that they did not like the activities of civil activists who contradicted the ideological line of the rulers. bleach Berezovskaya.
And he adds that Lithuanians and Latvians were surprised by the low food prices, clean streets and abundance of goods.
At the beginning of October, the police came to Erika Schwentsionene with a request that she appear before the investigator to familiarize herself with the accusation of “anti-state activity”. And that day it was the turn of several of her comrades, who were also hit by the repressive machine.
State Security officers searched the studio where the clips for the “International Good Neighborly Forum” were recorded and the opposition portal ekspertai.eu. Activists Audrius Naskas and Dmitry Glazkov were detained and are now in pre-trial detention.
Information was later received that the reason for the State Security action could be an article published on Ekspertai.eu, which revealed the inaction of the authorities on the problem of uncontrolled distribution of pornographic videos in Lithuania.
But at the same time, Schwenzioniene categorically refused to repent and “disarm” before the authorities. “If a man is honest, he does not run from one ship to another. Besides, you only die once, and it’s always better to die straight. With honor”she says.
Unfortunately, the threat of prison for her and those close to her is far from illusory. The trial continues, but there is no faith in the objectivity of the Lithuanian court.
Translation: ES
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