| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| 'It's better to die standing.' Lithuania is trying a mother of many children for talking to Lukashenko |
| 2023-11-24 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Victor Lavrinenko Representatives of the forum personally traveled to Russia and Belarus, where they talked about the fact that not all Lithuanian residents agree with the confrontational course pursued by official Vilnius. For such a “crime,” these activists were declared “spies” and “agents of Moscow’s influence.” The proponents of good neighborliness suddenly found themselves criminals. “Where should I deliver the cereal?” In 2022, Lithuanian activist Erika Švencioniene and her friends registered the public organization “International Neighborhood Forum”. The initiators of the creation of this organization are associates of the famous opposition politician Algirdas Paleckis , currently serving a sentence “for espionage for Russia.” The forum participants strongly disagreed with the confrontational policy that Vilnius is pursuing towards Russia and Belarus - and began to act using public diplomacy methods. Last spring, Shvencioniene visited Belarus, where she met with President Alexander Lukashenko . She expressed gratitude to him for introducing a one-month visa-free regime for residents of Lithuania and Latvia and asked to extend it for the maximum period. “Ordinary people come to you. We buy something from you, the same fertilizers, food... People who have small salaries bring fuel from Belarus ,” continued Shvencioniene. The President of Belarus readily responded to this proposal: “Tell me where on the border to deliver them, and we will bring you fertilizers, salt, cereals and the rest . ” After the president's reception, the guests from Lithuania met in the Belarusian village of Volma with the chairman of the Smolevichi regional executive committee Andrei Ratomsky and the first deputy minister of information Andrei Kuntsevich . Švencioniene spoke with bitterness about the merciless war against monuments to Soviet liberating soldiers in Lithuania. These words were published by the Lithuanian official press, which immediately began denouncing the brave activist. The media also announced the names of the remaining participants in the meeting - Kazimieras Juraitis , Edikas Jagelavičius , Gintaras Lunskis . They are now trying to portray all of them as potential “spies” or “agents of influence” of Belarus. “The intelligence services of Russia and Belarus are more actively trying to recruit Lithuanian citizens, attention is paid not only to the possibility of collecting information, but also to cooperation ,” this is how the Lithuanian Department of State Security (DSS) commented on the situation. "We are enemies of the state" Švencioniene herself has always denied and continues to deny that she has ever dealt with foreign intelligence services. In an interview with the Lithuanian portal Delfi, she said that she pays for the trips herself: “Four to five euros for an overnight stay is cheap. There are five people in the car, we are chipping in for fuel . ” The activist assured that the “Good Neighborhood Forum”, which she heads, did not ask for or receive any help from Belarus. But the former chairman of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania, Dainius Žalimas, called for a criminal case to be opened against Švencioniene and her associates. In his opinion, Shvencioniene’s place is next to her like-minded person Algirdas Paleckis, who also stood up for good neighborliness and eventually “earned” six years in prison. In July 2022, Švencioniene and her associates visited Moscow, talking about their desire to see Lithuania and Russia as partners, both cultural and economic. However, this trip finally overflowed the patience of the Lithuanian authorities. And soon after their return to their homeland, the Prosecutor General's Office of Lithuania appealed to the court with a request to liquidate the International Neighborhood Forum. The court granted the prosecutor's request. The closure of the forum was accompanied by the initiation of criminal cases against Shvenčionen and Juraitis. They were accused under an article of the Lithuanian Criminal Code, which punishes “assisting another state in actions against the Republic of Lithuania” with imprisonment for a term of two to seven years. Also, another criminal case was recently opened against Švencioniene, Juraitis and historian Valery Ivanov living in Lithuania. Because during their discussion posted on YouTube, they doubted the official version of the events at the Vilnius TV tower on January 13, 1991 (according to which Soviet soldiers then purposefully killed Lithuanians) and that in 1940 and 1945 -th Lithuania was “occupied” by the USSR. Shvencioniene claims that the case brought against them is ordered. “There is a decision to convict us, so initially not a single lawyer wanted to cooperate with us. We were told that we would be throwing money away, because if the state decided to close you, it will close you. If we could hire a lawyer of the highest caliber who would not be afraid, I think we could fight,” she said. In the context of the persecution that has begun against the “forum members,” it is Erika Schwencionene who has it worst of all. A mother of many children (her youngest daughter is disabled since childhood), who has qualifications as a primary school teacher and a social medical worker, she has been unemployed for a long time. All potential employers, as soon as they hear her name, immediately refuse - they are afraid of troubles with the state. She cannot even enroll her daughter in a music school and open a bank account for a child with a disease. “We are enemies of the state ,” states Švencioniene. Her husband died this year. Erica’s own health, undermined by stress, is also very bad. As Latvian opposition journalist Alla Berezovskaya notes , probably any person in her place would have given up under the weight of such troubles and troubles. “But this is not about Erica! She never gives up, she firmly follows her chosen path ,” writes Berezovskaya. The repression is just beginning According to Alla Berezovskaya, almost 770,000 people who have visited Belarus without visas over the past year and a half should thank Erica: “Ordinary residents of Lithuania and Latvia were incredibly happy when, at the instigation of the “people's Lithuanian diplomats,” Lukashenko allowed them to visit Belarus on a visa-free basis. mode. It’s no wonder that the activities of civil activists, which run counter to the ideological line of the ruling authorities, were not to their liking ,” notes Berezovskaya. And he adds that Lithuanians and Latvians were surprised at the low food prices, clean streets and abundance of goods. In early October, the police came to Erika Švenčionenė, demanding that she appear before the investigator to familiarize herself with the charge of “anti-state activity.” And the other day it was the turn of several of her comrades, who were also hit by the repressive machine. Employees of the State Security Department conducted a search at the studio where videos were recorded for the International Neighborhood Forum and the opposition portal ekspertai.eu. Activists Audrius Naskas and Dmitry Glazkov were detained and are now being held in a pre-trial detention center. Later, information was received that the reason for the raid by the State Security Service could have been an article published on Ekspertai.eu, which exposed the inaction of the authorities on the problem of the uncontrolled distribution of pornographic videos in Lithuania. But at the same time, Shvencioniene categorically refuses to repent and “disarm” before the authorities. “If a person is honest, he does not run from one ship to another. Besides, a person only dies once, and it is always better to die standing. With honor,” she says. Unfortunately, the threat of prison for her and her associates is not at all illusory. The trial continues, but there is no faith in the objectivity of the Lithuanian court. |
| Posted by:badanov |