LRT English Newsletter: Unconstitutional

LRT English Newsletter – June 9, 2023.

Dear readers, we are a little (massively) short-staffed this week, so I apologise for a rather brief newsletter. We promise to make it up to you next week. Now, onto the news.

In what many activists and officials said was already evident, the Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday that detaining migrants was unconstitutional. Ever since the migration crisis, which started in 2021 when the Minsk regime decided to play with human lives in response to sanctions, asylum seekers would be placed in “temporary accommodation” for months. In practice, it meant de facto detention.

A plethora of human rights groups decried the practice itself, as well as the conditions the people were placed in. Combined with a new border wall and pushbacks, however, the measures did have an effect as the flow of people channelled by the regime has continued to decrease. The interior minister responsible for the handling of the crisis, Agnė Bilotaitė, said the unconstitutional measures were necessary to protect the country.

So, what happened to the people who were detained? Most of them have since been deported, took the cash incentives (or were coerced) to leave, or have been released. Here’s a piece from last year that profiles what happened next.

Meanwhile, what is happening to those still trying to make it across? Many are stuck in forests, scores have died or lost limbs to frostbite, while others that do make it across are picked up by smugglers for an upstream journey to Germany or elsewhere. Those responsible for the scheme are raking in millions, according to a new investigation. Unsurprisingly, most of those involved are regime-connected crooks in Belarus and Russia.

EARTH TO ASH

A drought is wreaking havoc on Lithuania’s agriculture. It’s not yet catastrophic (recall the summer of 2019, but at least a third of the harvest may be lost. According to one farmer, he has watched land on his farm turn to ash.

OH SNAP

Or no snap. The parliament voted against holding snap elections earlier this week.; the next step will be to focus on whether the government should resign. This comes in response to the earlier expenses scandal, revealing that politicians from all major parties have been claiming sham expenses. Read more about it here.

NATO SUMMIT LATEST

Here are some of the latest updates about the upcoming summit in Vilnius on July 11–12.
– A French official said Kyiv may get some sort of pathway to NATO;
– Lithuania’s president dispelled claims that the summit is merely an opportunity for the country to show off;
– Public transport in the Lithuanian capital will be free during the summit.

ECONOMY UPDATE

The ongoing “technical recession”, as the officials call it, has already made its mark on s several sectors, particularly on the furniture makers. Meanwhile, the sanctions on Russia have pushed the port of St Petersburg down under, making Lithuania's Klaipėda one of the biggest container ports in the Baltic Sea, according to the port's CEO. It has now also overtaken St Petersburg, the former Russian gate to European trade. In other economic news, Lithuania is moving to ban fur farming, while gas prices for consumers are due to fall. Standard & Poor’s has also affirmed Lithuania’s A+ credit score (with a negative outlook, though).

IN OTHER NEWS

– Lithuania will install a flight safety system to manage drones in the sky.
– A US ex-billionaire is living in a luxury Vilnius hotel, despite being millions in debt.
– Latvia continues sending cars to Ukraine that have been seized from drunk drivers.
– A new LRT investigation: turns out, the war was no obstacle for a Russian family with ties to Putin’s inner circle to live in Lithuania.
– Vilnius will now have a Night Bureau.
– Man was detained for throwing trash at the Russian embassy.
– Some Lithuanians are very excited about the country’s breed of former fighting horses.
– And ever wondered what happened to Lithuania’s claim of being at the centre of Europe?