The recent riots outside the Lithuanian parliament in Vilnius were caused "not without the assistance of foreign states", Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said on Friday.
"We live under the conditions of hybrid war and hybrid attacks. And those attacks come one after another,” the president told Delfi TV on Thursday. “We all realise very well in Lithuania that that spike in the number of migrants is a certain hybrid attack, first of all, orchestrated by Belarus. This attack has not ended, it’s ongoing.”
However, Darius Jauniškis, director of the country's State Security Department (VSD), previously said the intelligence service had no evidence that foreign forces were involved.
"What happened that night, there were really too many coincidences on the same day,” Nausėda said. “Belarusian TV and interviews with them on the same night, and then the riots started, followed the next day already by reactions of Russian government representatives.”
Read more: Police detain 26 people during riots outside Lithuanian parliament, 18 officers injured
“And the masterminds, I think, are pretty obvious,” Nausėda said, without disclosing any evidence to back up his claims.
“The problem is that some of our politicians are also taking part in this, without realising all consequences for national security," he added.
Nausėda underlined that Tuesday's daily protest against planned restrictions for people without coronavirus immunity was an expression of a civil position, and what followed had "nothing to do with democracy itself and a wish to express an opinion".
"All the more so, those people hardly cared about the first part of the rally and the problems raised during it," Nausėda said.
According to the president, the rally's participants expressed resentment over the same things causing anger across the world. The president, however, called certain accents of the rally unacceptable. The use of gallows and the Star of David "was historical analphabetism to say the least".
Some 5,000 people gathered outside the parliament building on Tuesday to protest against the government's planned restrictions for people without immunity to the coronavirus and refusing to get tested.
Once the parliamentary sitting ended, some protesters blocked exits from the parliament and the driveway into the parliament's internal courtyard. As officers attempted to push people away, riots broke out and officers were pelted with bottles, stones and flares. Teargas had to be used against the rioters.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
