LRT English Newsletter – July 28, 2023.
This week started with good news – Lithuania plans to buy German Leopard tanks – followed by not-so-good news – the defence minister spoke too soon?
The news was announced by Arvydas Anušauskas after the State Defence Council meeting on Monday. He later took to Facebook to say that Lithuania was choosing between American Abrams, Korean Black Panther, and German Leopard tanks, settling on the latter because they “best meet” the country’s operational requirements.
But the minister’s blurt about Lithuania buying tanks – something the country’s Armed Forces have been lacking until now – has irritated politicians.
President Gitanas Nausėda has criticised Anušauskas for sharing on Facebook information that was allegedly of restricted use. Meanwhile, opposition members of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence (NSGK) accused the minister of trying to score political goals by sharing the news first and said his public statements have reduced Lithuania’s bargaining power.
Anušauskas, on his part, said he has never publicly shared any secret information and informed the State Defence Council that he would announce plans to acquire German tanks.
NSGK chair Laurynas Kasčiūnas, however, told LRT.lt that the committee only backed signing the letter of intent with German manufacturers to get more information about their Leopards. But the letter is not binding, and Lithuania could still decide to buy tanks from other manufacturers, he said.
Lithuania is looking to buy tanks for around 2 billion euros, according to Kasčiūnas, the only question left hanging in the air – which tanks will it be?
ANOTHER BLURT
Andrius Valotka, head of Lithuania’s State Language Inspectorate, has also stirred water by calling Lithuanian areas populated by Polish speakers “occupation zones” and comparing them to Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories. His remarks came after the inspectorate ordered the authorities to remove bilingual Lithuanian-Polish signs in two Vilnius District villages.
Polish Ambassador to Lithuania Konstanty Radziwiłł was infuriated by Valotka’s “false and antagonistic” statements and likened them to the “propaganda of the totalitarian regimes Poland and Lithuania suffered so much from in the 20th century”.
Reportedly, the two men later sat down for a chat, and Valotka apologised for his words.
CHILDREN’S ABDUCTION
Last week, parents abducted their three children from a care home in Lithuania. The court previously removed the children, aged 9, 7, and 5, from the family that refused to let them attend school. The parent’s convictions stem from the so-called movement of sovereign citizens, “an anti-state extremist ideology that denies the legitimacy of the state”, according to the country’s intelligence service. Notably, the father has openly renounced his Lithuanian citizenship, calling himself a “free, living person”.
In Lithuania, several hundred people identify themselves as sovereigns, and a few dozen of them consider themselves citizens of the USSR, the State Security Department (VSD) said.
The Lithuanian police are continuing the search for the children, including abroad.
EDITOR’S PICKS
– More than 70,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Lithuania since the full-scale Russian invasion. Most, however, are eying home.
– Russia continues to fight in Ukraine according to its doctrine, but now, it no longer has the reserves to maintain its defensive lines, Riley Bailey, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), says in an interview with LRT.lt.
– Soviet collaborator or Lithuanian literary genius? A proposal to build a monument to poet and writer Justinas Marcinkevičius has sparked a heated debate.
– Eastern Europe remains in the “grey zone”, Dzmitry Pravatorau argues in an opinion piece.
– Lithuanian universities are working out how to deal with students using newly available artificial intelligence tools to write academic papers.
– Jobs with EU institutions used to be particularly coveted by Lithuanians. But things are changing.
– Lithuania urges the EU to strengthen Ukraine’s grain exports via Baltics.
– Baltic ministers have agreed to disconnect from Russia’s energy system (BRELL) by early 2025.
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Written by Ieva Žvinakytė
Edited by Benas Gerdžiūnas
