A new book titled The Whistleblower and the President (Pranešėjas ir Prezidentas), published earlier this month, reveals more details about Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda's conflict with the then foreign and defence ministers, Linas Linkevičius and Raimundas Karoblis.
Witnesses interviewed by the book's authors, journalists Davidas Pancerovas and Birutė Davidonytė, claim that the president's main clash with Linkevičius was over sanctions for Minsk after the presidential election in Belarus in August 2020, unrecognised by the West.
The president also allegedly locked horns with Karoblis over a candidate to lead the country's military intelligence service. Both ministers served in Saulius Skvernelis' government until December 2020.
In early 2021, the president refused to appoint the two politicians as ambassadors in Washington and Brussels, stating that the ex-ministers allegedly needed a period to "cool down politically".
Linkevičius told to find ‘another republic’ to represent
The book tells how Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the main opposition candidate who vied for Belarusian president against the country's authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, crossed the Belarusian-Lithuanian border on the night of August 11, 2020, following post-election protests in Belarus, and Linkevičius tweeted about it.
Following these events, the European Union started discussing sanctions for the Belarusian regime, but Lithuanian diplomats felt that European discussions were slow and sluggish.
Therefore, Linkevičius presented a two-way plan to Nausėda: to take part in the European negotiations on international sanctions and also impose national sanctions at the same time, including a ban on people behind the crackdown in Belarus to enter Lithuania.
Cited in the book, sources in the ministry said Nausėda disagreed and said that any sanctions should, first of all, be coordinated with the Latvians and Estonians.
This led to tensions between the president and the minister as the dominant mood within the Foreign Ministry was that Lithuania should set the tone on sanctions.
Despite Nausėda's disapproval, Linkevičius instructed ministerial staff to start drawing up a list of more than 100 regime representatives Lithuania could sanction.
"The presidential office tried to stop the process," one source within the ministry claimed. "They would write letters to ministerial staff and remove names from the draft lists without any arguments."
To put pressure on the presidential office, Linkevičius informed reporters about the planned national sanctions, sources told the book's authors.
"At the time, Linkevičius received a WhatsApp message from Nausėda: if the minister wants to pursue his foreign policy, he should find another republic to represent," the book reads.
People close to Linkevičius believed jealousy was the reason behind the president's bitterness.
"You could feel the president's wish to be supreme," the witness said. "Let him be, no problem, the minister's appearances in the world media do not limit the president's ability to express himself."
Witnesses: Nausėda threatened to stall officers' promotion
The book also tells the story of the appointment of the head of the Second Investigation Department under the Ministry of Defence.
Usually, a person is appointed to lead this military intelligence service under the defence minister's order. Karoblis presented his candidate to Nausėda, Skvernelis, and the then chairman of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence, Dainius Gaižauskas.
The latter two had no objections. However, the president, as the witnesses allege, reproached Karoblis during a private conversation that his candidate lacked intelligence experience and suggested Colonel Saulius Guzevičius and two other possible candidates for the position.
The book claims that the minister realised that all three officers were linked to the Special Operations Forces and subsequently with State Security Department Director Darius Jauniškis, who had served in the Special Operations Forces and did not approve the candidates.
In the end, the politicians parted ways without reaching a consensus.
Witnesses claim that when the ministry's representatives invited the president to get back to the negotiating table during an email exchange, Nausėda made it clear that he would stall the awarding of military ranks if the candidates he proposed were not approved. It would have meant that "the Lithuanian military could have been left without some of its commanders", the book reads.
In the end, it was agreed during negotiations that Colonel Elegijus Paulavičius would become the new director of military intelligence.
The book's authors point out that neither Nausėda himself, nor his office responded to their inquiries when this book was being written.
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