LRT English Newsletter – December 1, 2023
Today is the official first day of winter, but with a thick snow cover and the first Christmas trees already lit, Lithuania has been living in a winter mood for some time now.
Last Saturday, Kaunas became the first major Lithuanian city to unveil its Christmas tree, decorated with angel feathers.
Vilnius, meanwhile, is lighting its main Christmas decoration in Cathedral Square tonight. After splashing out 230,000 euros on a cake-shaped tree last year, this time Vilnius opted for a much cheaper real tree (as did most Lithuanian cities).
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
Lithuania’s incumbent president Gitanas Nausėda says he has made up his mind about whether he will run for a second term, but will not reveal his decision before December 7. While he is making us wait, two more candidates have joined the presidential race this week.
The first is lawyer Ignas Vėgėlė who announced his campaign in a splashy event on Wednesday evening. He is running as an independent candidate and is best known for his opposition to the government’s pandemic policies and support for traditional values. In the opinion polls, Vėgėlė has frequently been placed among the top three most popular candidates, alongside Nausėda and Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė.
Meanwhile, Artūras Paulauskas, a former interim president, will run on the ticket of the Freedom and Justice Party, although he is expected to attract much less attention and media buzz than Vėgėlė.
DIPLOMATIC STEAM
On Thursday, the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe commenced in Skopje, Northern Macedonia. This year, the meeting of the 57-country-strong organisation’s top diplomats is taking place without the Baltics.
Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian foreign ministers have jointly decided to boycott the meeting over the invitation extended to Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Russia, which is still a member of OSCE. North Macedonia temporarily suspended Western sanctions on the Kremlin regime officials to allow Lavrov to attend the council.
Ironically, the OSCE was founded during the Cold War to defuse tensions between the Western and Eastern blocs and ensure peace in Europe. But Russia’s presence at the organisation’s meetings risks “legitimising the aggressor as a rightful member of our community of free nations”, according to the Baltic diplomats.
Meanwhile, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has not missed another opportunity to warn the West about the looming threats if Russia is allowed to prevail in Ukraine. This time speaking in Berlin, he said the West was waiting for the Pearl Harbor-like shock of a surprise attack before it took Moscow as a threat.
Here is also his extensive interview on the security situation in Lithuania, the war in Ukraine, and relations with China.
THE RICH AND THE POOR
Lithuania has three new billionaires (and six in total), according to the annual list of the country’s richest people. This year, two co-founders of the cybersecurity company Tesonet and president of one of Lithuania’s biggest business groups MG Grupė (which, recall, has recently been fined for bribery and influence peddling) have joined the ranks of those whose assets are valued at a sum with nine zeros.
We’ll leave it to your own judgement whether it’s a good or bad thing. However, around 20 percent of the Lithuanian population is projected to be at risk of poverty this year.
In other economic news, Lithuania is seeking to host the new European Anti-Money Laundering Authority in Vilnius. The agency is expected to employ some 500 people, and Lithuania hopes it would lure at least some Lithuanian professionals working abroad to come back home. But securing the agency’s base in Vilnius won’t be easy, as Lithuania is competing with such European giants as Paris, Frankfurt, and Madrid.
EDITOR’S PICKS
– It is tempting for small countries to form regional groups in order to be more visible, says Laurent Le Bon, head of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, but that covers their uniqueness. That is particularly true of Lithuania and the Baltics, he argues.
– NATO does not require the creation of a division in Lithuania, Rob Bauer, chair of the NATO Military Committee, has said in an interview with BNS.
– Jovita Neliupšienė, Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister and future EU Ambassador to the US, has been named one of the most powerful people to shape politics and policy in Europe next year.
– And will a Lithuanian MP sentenced in a corruption case be serving his constituents from jail?
Written by Ieva Žvinakytė
Edited by Justinas Šuliokas
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