LITHUANIA DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

IN THIS ISSUE:

1. Upcoming events in Lithuania for Wednesday, February 1, 2023
2. Two irregular migrants turned away on Lithuania's border with Belarus
3. Lithuania launches HPV vaccination for 11y boys
4. Lithuania's parlt speaker sees grounds for probe into alleged unlawful police surveillance
5. Lithuania reports 351 new COVID-19 cases, 3 deaths
6. Lithuania's society is poisoned by Russian culture – PM
7. Polish could replace Russian in Lithuanian schools – PM
8. Some 72 pct of Lithuanians approve of EU economic recovery plan – Eurobarometer
9. Bartosevicius suspected of sexually abusing 4 minors while he was Lithuanian MP 
10. Bartosevicius suspected of sexually abusing 4 minors while he was Lithuanian MP (expands)
11. Russia's repressions only encourage Lithuania to help declared "enemies" – formin
12. Highest number of applications for temporary residence in Lithuania lodged in Turkey
13. Lithuanian govt tightens citizenship procedures
14. Vilimiene named new director of Lithuanian natl opera and ballet theater
15. Upcoming events in Lithuania for Thursday, February 2, 2023

Upcoming events in Lithuania for Wednesday, February 1, 2023

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS – The following events are scheduled in Lithuania for Wednesday, February 1, 2023:

PRESIDENT Gitanas Nauseda to receive credentials from the incoming Greek ambassador at 1 p.m.; to receive credentials from the incoming ambassador of Kazakhstan at 2 p.m.; to receive credentials from the incoming ambassador of the Republic of Korea at 3 p.m.

SPEAKER OF THE SEIMAS Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen  to meet with Korean Ambassador Hoonmin Lim at 3.40 p.m.

THE CABINET to hold its regular meeting and sitting at 1 p.m.

DEFENSE MINISTER Arvydas Anusauskas to meet with the Ukrainian ambassador at 9 a.m.; to meet with the Czech defense minister at 4.30 p.m.

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Two irregular migrants turned away on Lithuania's border with Belarus

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS – Lithuanian border guards have in the past 24 hours turned away two migrants attempting to cross into the country from Belarus illegally, the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) said on Wednesday morning.

Latvia reported 23 attempts at illegal border crossings on Tuesday, and seven irregular migrants were not allowed into Poland on Monday, according to the latest available information.

A total of 219 regular migrants have been barred from entering Lithuania from Belarus at non-designated places so far this year.

Lithuanian border guards have prevented over 19,500 people from crossing in from Belarus since August 3, 2021, when they were given the right to turn away irregular migrants. The number includes repeated attempts by the same people to cross the border.

The SBGS says that illegal migration to Lithuania and the EU is being facilitated by Belarusian officials.

Almost 4,200 irregular migrants crossed into Lithuania from Belarus illegally in 2021.

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Lithuania launches HPV vaccination for 11y boys

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS – Lithuania starts vaccinating 11-year-old boys against the human papillomavirus (HPV) from February 1.

Since 2016, only 11-year-old girls have been vaccinated against HPV in Lithuania, according to the preventive vaccination calendar for children, to reduce cases of cervical cancer.

This type of vaccination is done in around 60 countries.

The Health Ministry says that countries with a high HPV vaccine uptake report a drop in the number of pre-cancerous cases. 

HPV infection is a viral infection that is most commonly transmitted sexually through direct contact with an infected person. It's the most common STI in the world. There are currently more than 200 known types of HPV.

HPV types have cancer-causing properties. Some of them pose a low risk of developing cancer, others pose a high risk. People can be infected with more than one type of HPV at once.

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Lithuania's parlt speaker sees grounds for probe into alleged unlawful police surveillance

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS – Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen sees grounds for a pre-trial investigation into allegations of unlawful criminal intelligence against the police. However, she does not back the idea of setting up a special temporary parliamentary commission.

"Judging from the information that I and fellow political group leaders have received, which has also been made public, it seems that there's certainly room and a need for a pre-trial investigation because the allegations are very serious," the speaker told the Ziniu Radijas news radio on Wednesday.

"As far as the Seimas is concerned, I think we should, first of all, make use of the tools that we already have as we have a special Criminal Intelligence Commission within the Committee on Legal Affairs. We still need to assess any need for the parliament to investigate anything through the instrument of a temporary commission, as some members of the opposition are suggesting," she said.

Cmilyte-Nielsen believes a parliamentary investigation commission should only be involved "when there's a certain political aspect to one issue or another".

"The Committee on Legal Affairs has already forwarded that letter to prosecutors, and we are apparently waiting for a reaction from them," the Seimas speaker said.

Algimantas Martinkus, a former chief investigator from the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau who was dismissed for various irregularities, has asked Cmilyte-Nielsen to initiate the establishment of a parliamentary commission to investigate allegedly unlawful criminal intelligence investigations.

He's also asking for an investigation into what he considers to be unlawful actions by some former and current police leaders, including Rolandas Kiskis, the former head of the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau, his former deputy Andzejus Roginskis, Elanas Jablonskas, the former head of the Immunity Board, as well Saulius Briginas, incumbent deputy chief of the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau, and high-ranking officers Gintaras Gecenas and Gintas Venclovas.

On Tuesday, Martinkus accused the former high-ranking officers of ordering him to place a number of persons under unlawful surveillance. The persons included the then commander of the country's State Border Guard Service Renatas Pozela who now serves as police commissioner general, the then Government Chancellor Algirdas Stoncaitis, the then Kaunas County Police chief Darius Zukauskas, MP and later Environment Minister Kestutis Mazeika, MP Arturas Skardžius and others.

Moreover, Martinkus also alleged that Roginskis told him to falsely link Jonas Piroznikas, the head of the Palanga Rescue Station, with a criminal group in Kaunas to initiate criminal intelligence.

The Police Department rejects Martinkus' allegations and says they "do not correspond to reality". The police point out that Martinkus was dismissed for leaking information to persons linked to organized crime, as well as for breaching the existing criminal intelligence legislation, activities and procedures governing criminal intelligence and the use of police information.

By Ignas Jačauskas

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Lithuania reports 351 new COVID-19 cases, 3 deaths

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS – Lithuania has recorded 351 new coronavirus infections and three deaths from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, official statistics showed on Wednesday morning.

Of the new cases, 235 were primary, 99 were secondary and 17 were tertiary.

The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 now stands at 118, including seven ICU cases.

The 14-day primary infection rate has edged up to 122.3 cases per 100,000 people, but the seven-day percentage of positive tests has ticked down to 19.7 percent.

The daily number of new coronavirus cases remains well below the peak of over 14,000 reached in early February 2022.

More than 1.17 million people in Lithuania have tested positive with COVID-19 at least once.

Some 69.7 percent of people in the country have received at least one coronavirus vaccine jab so far.

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Lithuania's society is poisoned by Russian culture – PM

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS – Lithuania's society is poisoned by Russian culture as it was too much emphasized during the Soviet era, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte says, adding that it would be worthwhile to take a closer look at other cultures.

"I think we have certain intoxication with Russian culture in our society. I am not surprised by the reluctance to stage, listen, read or do anything else with it now," the prime minister told the Znad Wilii radio station on Wednesday, asked about the initiative not to use Russian authors' works in Lithuania.

"I don't think there's any compulsion in here, because, for example, I still think people should read Varlam Shalamov's Kolyma Tales now. This is my opinion, this is a book that impressed me very much", she said.

During the period of Soviet occupation, Lithuania's society was "fed with Russian culture" as the myth was being created that this culture was "somehow very, very great", which is why even now a part of the society tends to put it on a pedestal.

"Russian culture has clearly dominated the repertoires of our theaters, and elsewhere, and it seems to me that we have had this historical circumstance for a very long time mainly because we have talked little about other cultures, such as the Polish culture, the Swedish culture, the Ukrainian culture, the Spanish culture," the Lithuanian prime minister said.

In April, in response to the massacre of civilians by Russian troops in Ukraine, the Lithuanian Art Creators' Association called for an embargo on Russian culture and art in Lithuania until the end of the war in Ukraine.

Several Lithuanian theaters have already announced their decision to remove works by Russian authors from their repertoires.

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Polish could replace Russian in Lithuanian schools – PM

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS - The teaching of Russian as a second foreign language in Lithuanian schools could be replaced by Polish, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte says.

"I am definitely in favor of more of Polish as a foreign language in schools," she told the Znad Wilii radio station on Wednesday.

She believes it should not be difficult to find Polish teachers as there are Polish schools in Lithuania where the number of schoolchildren is going down, and these teachers could move to Lithuanian schools.

"I would like children to have a better choice in schools, within our education system the responsible for, than Russian as now it's the only second foreign language we can teach because we simply don’t have teachers to teach other languages. I would be very much in favor of making Latvian, Polish, as the second foreign language, as accessible as possible," Simonyte said.

According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, Russian is the most popular second foreign language in schools this school year, with almost 15,000 sixth-graders learning it.

Lithuanian education leaders have recommended that schools abandon Russian as a second foreign language.

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Some 72 pct of Lithuanians approve of EU economic recovery plan – Eurobarometer

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS – Seventy-two percent of Lithuanians agree that the principle of solidarity that underpins the EU's post-COVID-19 recovery plan, NextGenerationEU is a "good approach" for the bloc, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey. 

Sixty-six percent of respondents in Lithuania think that the recovery plan will have a positive impact on future generations, and 64 percent believe that it will lead to economic growth and new jobs. 

Sixty-one percent of Lithuanians selected "health" as an area that should be prioritized to receive EU support, 48 percent chose "energy, environmental issues and climate change", and 40 percent picked "employment and better working conditions". 

Sixty-eight percent of respondents agree that payments to member states under the plan should be conditional on the implementation of agreed reforms and investments.

Seventy-eight percent of Lithuanians think that the European Commission's REPowerEU plan to help member states achieve more energy independence from Russia is "a good thing". 

Almost 27,000 EU citizens, including 1,000 people in Lithuania, were polled online between December 7 and 13. 

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Bartosevicius suspected of sexually abusing 4 minors while he was Lithuanian MP 

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS – Kristijonas Bartosevicius is suspected of sexually abusing four minors while he served as a member of the Lithuanian parliament, the Prosecutor General's Office said on Wednesday.

Prosecutors have brought formal suspicions against Bartosevicius as part of their investigation under the Criminal Code's articles concerning sexual assault on a minor and a young child, and sexual molestation of a child.

"The available evidence from the pre-trial investigation suggests that the offences were committed while the suspect was a member of the Seimas," the office said in a press release. 

"At present, four persons, who were minors at the time, have been recognized as victims," it said. 

Bartosevicius, who resigned as MP last month, has been questioned, according to the press release. 

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Bartosevicius suspected of sexually abusing 4 minors while he was Lithuanian MP (expands)

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS – Kristijonas Bartosevicius is suspected of sexually abusing four minors while he served as a member of the Lithuanian parliament, the Prosecutor General's Office said on Wednesday.

Prosecutors have brought formal suspicions against Bartosevicius as part of their investigation under the Criminal Code's articles concerning sexual assault on a minor and a young child, and sexual molestation of a child.

"The available evidence from the pre-trial investigation suggests that the offences were committed while the suspect was a member of the Seimas," the office said in a press release. 

"At present, four persons, who were minors at the time, have been recognized as victims," it said. 

Bartosevicius, who has recently resigned as MP, has been questioned, according to the press release. 

The prosecutors would not comment on the suspect's position during the questioning. Bartosevicius has previously denied the allegations against him.

According to Wednesday's press release, the man is banned from leaving Lithuania and from communicating with the victims, and has had his documents taken.

"The suspect and his lawyer are prohibited from providing third parties with information about the investigation and its data so as to ensure the rights of the victims," it said. 

The prosecutors will provide no detailed information about the investigation, such as the circumstances, time and place of the suspected criminal offences, to "ensure the victims' right to confidentiality". 

The Prosecutor General's Office said a week ago that Prosecutor General Nida Grunskiene had written to Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, speaker of the Seimas, to inform her that the pre-trial investigation had been launched and that it required "addressing the issue" of stripping Bartosevicius of his legal immunity from prosecution. 

The press release came a couple of hours after Bartosevicius confirmed that he was resigning as a member of the parliament "for personal reasons".  

The office said on Wednesday that Grunskiene adhered to the "principle of strict confidentiality" in her letter, only informing Cmilyte-Nielsen of the fact of the pre-trial investigation, the date on which it had been launched, and the articles of the Criminal Code under which it had been opened.

"Later, when the speaker of the Seimas asked whether MP Bartosevicius, who had publicly announced his decision to resign (...), was the same person mentioned in the letter, (...) a clarification was sent to her (...), in which the MP was named," it said. 

The Central Electoral Commission received Bartosevicius' statement of resignation by email at around 8 p.m. on January 20, while he was on a trip abroad, and revoked his mandate on January 24. 

The politician told reporters that it was a well-thought-out decision, rather than a spontaneous one, and that he decided to step down for health issues.

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Russia's repressions only encourage Lithuania to help declared "enemies" – formin

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS - Repressions only encourage Lithuania to help persecuted organizations and individuals, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Wednesday, commenting on Russian prosecutors' decision to declare the activities of the Lithuania-based Free Russia Forum undesirable.

"It's not the first organization, not the first persons granted asylum and the right to reside in Lithuania to be declared enemies or criminals in Russia. We have seen this trend and it does not change our position in any way. Quite the contrary, it further encourages us to help those people who chose Lithuania and asked for asylum here to be able to work and live freely without restrictions," Landsbergis told reporters on Wednesday before the Cabinet meeting.

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office earlier declared the activities of the Lithuanian-based Free Russia Forum as undesirable within the territory of Russia, according to the statement on the prosecution service's website.

It states that the activities of the Free Russia Forum "pose a threat to the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation" and cites it as the reason why the decision was made "to declare the activities of the Lithuanian organization undesirable within the territory of the Russian Federation".

The Free Russia Forum holds a biannual Russian opposition conference in Vilnius. The organization was founded in March, 2016 by Garry Kasparov who is recognized as a "foreign agent" in Russia.

The Russian authorities have launched an unprecedented crackdown on the media and the opposition, which has further intensified since February, 2022 when President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine.

Russia adopted the law on "undesirable organizations" in 2015, giving the Prosecutor General's Office the right to label any foreign or international NGO if, in its opinion, the activities of these organizations threaten "the foundations of Russia's constitutional order, defense capabilities or security".

People face liability, and prosecution in some cases, for any involvement in and cooperation with undesirable organizations.

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Highest number of applications for temporary residence in Lithuania lodged in Turkey

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS – Since Lithuania started accepting residence permit applications abroad, the highest number of applications for temporary residence permits in Lithuania has been lodged in Turkey, Lithuania's Migration Department reported on Wednesday

As of February 1, a total of 310 applications for temporary residence permits in Lithuania had been received through an external service provider since the start of the year.

The first application was received in Turkey and a total of 63 applications have so far been lodged in this country.

VFS Global's office in India has received 51 applications, followed by 37 in Nepal, 36 in the United Arab Emirates and 25 in Kyrgyzstan.

In all cases, specialists at the Migration Department will examine the authenticity and validity of the applications and make decisions on whether or not to issue a temporary residence permit, which takes between one and three months.

Applications can be lodged in 34 countries.

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Lithuanian govt tightens citizenship procedures

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS - The Lithuanian government on Wednesday tightened the existing citizenship procedures and shortened the deadline for submitting documents for dual citizenship.

"The amendments are aimed at making the procedures for loss of citizenship more efficient. Our goal is to prevent abuse cases and ensure national security," Interior Vice Minister Arnoldas Abramavicius said.

The changes will speed up decisions on the loss of Lithuanian citizenship in cases where a person acquires citizenship of another state, the Interior Ministry said.

The deadline for submitting documents to prove that a Lithuanian citizen who has acquired citizenship of another state is entitled to multiple citizenship has been shortened from six to three months.

The Interior Ministry says the changes are aimed at preventing prevent persons who are not entitled to both Lithuanian citizenship and citizenship of another country from enjoying the benefits of a Lithuanian passport and a passport of another state at the same time.

If the Migration Department does not have sufficient data to confirm that a Lithuanian citizen is entitled to multiple citizenship, it will send a notice to the person to submit documents to prove their right to dual citizenship within three months at the latest.

This deadline may be extended once by the Migration Department, but no more than for two months, upon receipt of a motivated request from the person. If the person fails to submit the requested documents by the specified deadline, the Migration Department will initiate the procedure for stripping the person of their Lithuanian citizenship.

Lithuanian citizens must notify the Lithuanian Migration via its information system within two months after acquiring citizenship of another country.

By Milena Andrukaitytė

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Vilimiene named new director of Lithuanian natl opera and ballet theater

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS – Laima Vilimiene, currently head of the Klaipeda State Musical Theater, has been selected as director general of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater (LNOBT), the Culture Ministry said on Wednesday.

Vilimiene scored more points in the selection process than the other five applicants for the job.

She will replace Jonas Sakalauskas whose five-year term as LNOBT director general is about to expire. 

Sakalauskas, an opera singer and composer, had headed the Klaipeda State Musical Theater before his LNOBT appointment in 2018. 

Vilimiene had served as the LNOBT deputy general director for marketing for years before she took over as head of the Klaipeda theater from Sakalauskas. 

She also teaches music management at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and has in the past worked as a lecturer in theoretical disciplines at the Vilnius Juozas Tallat-Kelpsa Conservatoire, and as head of the Information and Promotion Department at the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra.

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Upcoming events in Lithuania for Thursday, February 2, 2023

VILNIUS, Feb 01, BNS – The following events are scheduled in Lithuania for Thursday, February 2, 2023:

PRESIDENT Gitanas Nauseda to meet with MPs, government officials, business representatives and economists at 10 a.m. to discuss Lithuania's economic growth and investments; to meet with European Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi at 1 p.m. 

PRIME MINISTER Ingrida Simonyte to meet with Kovesi at 10 a.m. 

EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND SPORT MINISTER Jurgita Siugzdiniene to meet with the Latvian and Estonian ministers responsible for sport via video link at 1:45 p.m.

JUSTICE MINISTER Ewelina Dobrowolska to meet with Kovesi at 9 a.m. 

FOREIGN MINISTER Gabrielius Landsbergis to meet with the ambassador of Georgia; to meet with the ambassador of South Korea. 

ARMED FORCES

The General Silvestras Zukauskas Training Area in Pabrade, close to Vilnius, to host at 3 p.m. a changeover ceremony of US rotational battalions deployed in Lithuania. 

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