On Wednesday, the regional court in Lithuania's western city of Klaipėda will hold a closed-door sitting and start hearing a criminal case in which two Lithuanian citizens are accused of spying for Russia.
The country's prosecution service reported in January it had handed over the case to court and said that although the accused persons do not know each other and their activity differs.
The evidence collected during a pre-trial investigation suggests that they were involved in criminal acts by the same person, an officer from Russia’s security service, the FSB, in Kaliningrad. The agent introduced himself to the defendants, using a fake identity, and spoke perfect Lithuanian.
The two suspects in this case are Aleksej Greičius, a public figure and managing director of the Baltic Youth Association Juvenis, and also Mindaugas Tunikaitis.
Residing in Pagėgiai, close to the border with Kaliningrad, Tunikaitis ran for the local council with the political party Lithuania's List in 2015. Greičius ran for Klaipėda Council in 2015, being on the Lithuanian Russian Union's candidate list.
The investigation by Lithuania’s law enforcement showed that one of the defendants, who resides in Klaipėda Region, came into the Russian intelligence's focus back in 2014.
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Communication with the FSB officer started after he crossed a Lithuanian-Russian border checkpoint. The officer introduced himself as Petras and asked Tunikaitis to buy him a calendar or a bottle of wine in Lithuania. Later on, according to law enforcement, the relationship evolved into Tunikaitis taking “anti-Lithuanian” tasks.
The defendant had to take photos of specific objects, collect information on various people, attend certain events, acquire and hand over publications, publish certain information and carry out other orders.
The defendant received cash rewards for information, named as "support for health" or "compensation" for visa fees.
The defendant admitted during the investigation that he started realising that his actions might be illegal and that the person he had contact with was not the person he said. Although he considered turning to law enforcement, he did not dare to do it, fearing blackmail.
The defendant also admitted that he communicated with Petras, the Russian officer, and carried out his tasks and handed over received information secretly, using various conspiracy measures, which further raised doubt over the legality of such actions.
The second defendant met the same Russian intelligence representative in 2016 on social media. According to law enforcement, the defendant led a public organisation at the time and was not surprised to have received a private message with an inquiry about the organisation's activity. The exchange of messages took place for several months. Later, the defendant met with the person, who introduced himself as Piotr, in Sovetsk, Kaliningrad.
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Evidence collected during the pre-trial investigation shows that Piotr committed to fund events organised by the defendant's organisation.
Tge defendant also committed to take photos and videos of these events, the attendees, and present the video material to Piotr. He also committed to collect information related to these events, prepare and publish texts via designated Lithuanian media outlets, and he also agreed to hand over the information that Piotr was interested in using a pre-agreed confidential way.
The investigation found that Piotr funded at least 10 events.
The defendant continued his communication with Piotr even after officers from Lithuania’s State Security Department (VSD) warned him that the person was a Russian FSB officer.
Meanwhile, the defendant also actively provided contact information and got Piotr acquainted with other persons who could potentially cooperate.
Both men were detained in March last year.
Ela Andrejeva, a Klaipėda councilor, was detained as part of this pre-trial investigation last spring. Her lawyer Natalja Fočenkova later told BNS the politician had been granted the status of a special witness.
The men are facing prison terms ranging from three to 15 years.
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