LRT English Newsletter – July 4, 2025.
Poland has decided – from July 7, temporary checks will again take place on the Lithuanian border. Warsaw said this was done in response to irregular migration from the Baltic countries, ie people moving across the border with Belarus before making their way west.
Lithuanian officials did little to hide their surprise at Poland’s decision, with the border guards saying the move was not coordinated with them.
So what’s happening on the border with Belarus? People mostly from countries in Africa and Asia continue moving irregularly via Belarus to Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland as they make their way to western Europe.
Fences erected on the border, as well as the policy of pushbacks, have helped stem the flow, with the number of people attempting to cross the Lithuania-Belarus border dwindling since the height in 2021.
However, Latvia is faring a little worse, with undocumented migrants now choosing the northern route. Lithuanian border guards have registered a more than two-fold increase in the arrivals via Latvia, prompting authorities to send a group of officers to help Riga police its border.
Meanwhile, volunteers working on the border say that the fences have largely failed to stop irregular migration, pointing to the statistics of undocumented migrant arrivals in countries like Germany (which itself previously enacted border checks on the Polish border in response to irregular migration flows).
So, how will this affect the travellers? Expect some delays, officials say, but not outright border closures or heavy disruptions.
And what’s happening on the Belarus border? Human rights advocates continue to sound the alarm amid pushbacks and migrant deaths, while officials in countries bordering Belarus say the Minsk regime bears the blame (recall, the regime opened the migration corridor in 2021 in response to sanctions that followed a violent crackdown on the opposition).
ISRAELI MINISTER IN TOWN
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar toured the Baltic states earlier this week, kicking off his visit in Vilnius on Tuesday. As he met with his counterpart Kęstutis Budrys at the foreign ministry, a dozen or so people protested outside, saying no to occupation “from Palestine to Ukraine”.
(And when protest signs were left at a Holocaust memorial later in the week, Budrys called for them to be brought back to the foreign ministry instead – “there is a time and place for everything,” he said on X.)
Arguably, the alleged war crimes in Gaza are beginning to turn public opinion against Israel even in Lithuania, a staunch Tel Aviv advocate, according to the country’s diplomats speaking off the record.
So far, however, Budrys has tread a careful line between calling for “improvement” to aid distribution in Gaza while “understanding” the difficulty of doing that amid an ongoing military operation.
Here are some key outtakes from the presser:
– "The [Israeli] minister has assured me [...] that the state of Israel is making efforts to improve those conditions. It’s in Lithuania’s interest that this improvement is faster.”
– “We have a clear understanding and a common understanding that there is a need to improve the situation, that the humanitarian figures that we are seeing need to be improved and that the distribution of humanitarian aid needs to be broader, in the same way that we understand the challenges of doing so in the context of military action.”
PALUCKAS TROUBLES
Problems surrounding Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas continued this week as well, with the anti-corruption watchdog announcing it would investigate details revealed in a recent journalistic investigation by the Siena project and Laisvės TV.
He welcomed the probe, saying it would separate “fact from fiction”, despite having previously – and repeatedly – failed to answer reporters’ questions surrounding his alleged ties with various business figures.
Meanwhile, the tax inspectorate found no irregularities surrounding the previous story involving subsidised state bank loans.
GRU ATTACKS
The Baltic states have weathered a spate of low-level attacks with so-called disposable spies recruited online (just like with the whole IKEA story saga) by Russian secret services. A desecration of a Lithuanian partisan monument, however, seems to have been different – the prosecutors accuse two dual Estonian-Russian nationals and a Russian citizen of working for the Russian military intelligence, the GRU.
EDITOR’S PICKS:
– Tsikhanousky held his first rally in Vilnius following his release from the Belarus prison.
– While we are enjoying some sun rays at last, Europeans throughout the continent are being forced to adopt changes due to sweltering heat.
– A Lithuanian song festival took place in Cleveland, United States.
– Lithuanians are drinking less.
– Parking and buses got more expensive in Vilnius, as well as trains nationwide. But you will soon be able to take a river boat, so there’s that.
– Lithuania got spooked by immigration from Tajikistan.
– The Kaunas mayor hit a pedestrian while driving his Rolls-Royce.
– You can now watch LRT TV with English subtitles, yay.
Written by Benas Gerdžiūnas
Edited by Agnė Toločkaitė
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