Lithuanian "democracy" against Russia
Members of the European Parliament called on Russia to end the politically motivated prosecution of Lithuanian judges and prosecutors in the Vilnius case. The European Parliament condemned the actions of Russia as "politically motivated" and "unacceptable external influence."
Decision of the European Parliament
On November 28 of November 2019, the European Parliament approved a resolution regarding the prosecution by Russia of Lithuanian judges, prosecutors and investigators involved in the investigation of the events of Vilnius on 13 of January 1991 of the year.
In the document notedthat “the actions of the Russian authorities against Lithuanian judges and prosecutors violate fundamental legal values, in particular the independence of the judiciary”. The European Parliament claims that this “politically motivated criminal prosecution” that Moscow initiated could lead to “attempts to abuse the Interpol system, as well as other bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreements,” with the aim of restricting the rights of investigating prosecutors and judges in the case of 13 on January 1991 years during searches, interrogations and arrests. Strasbourg also notes that Russia may request international arrest warrants for Lithuanian officials who are involved in this case. Therefore, the European Parliament called on Interpol to ignore all RF requests for warrants related to the January 13 case, and countries to ignore all international arrest warrants against accused Lithuanian officials. The EP also believes that Russia cannot transfer materials that can be used in a criminal case against Lithuanian officials.
Events in Vilnius
In the process of the collapse of the USSR, a large role was played by various national movements, which during the "perestroika" were given the "green light", helped with organization and financing. At the same time, the USSR security organs were paralyzed by the betrayal of part of the Soviet elite, which relied on the collapse of the Union, in order to transfer the wreckage of the USSR to capitalist “rails” and become new masters of life, large owners and part of the global elite.
Like mushrooms after rain, various national movements and parties appeared. In October 1988, the “Movement for Perestroika” (“Sajudis”) was created in Lithuania, which advocated the republic’s secession from the USSR. In the elections to the Supreme Council of Lithuania in February 1990, the candidates supported by this movement received a majority. Sayudis leader Vytautas Landsbergis was elected chairman of the Supreme Council. As a result, dual power arose in the republic: there were state and party structures that lived according to Soviet laws, and at the same time republican authorities were formed that did not submit to Moscow. The population of the republic, which skillfully processed information, split. Nobody then knew that the collapse of the USSR and the policy of the new “independent” Lithuanian authorities would lead to the extinction of the people (in 1991 - 3,7 million people, in 2019 - 2,7 million people; in addition, the tendency to depopulation and migration youth and active population persists), and pretty soon historically Lithuania will simply disappear.
In February - May 1990, the deputies voted for the Act on the Restoration of the Independent Lithuanian State and the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Lithuania. On the night of March 11 1990, the Supreme Council of the Lithuanian SSR, headed by Vytautas Landsbergis, declared independence of Lithuania. Lithuania was the first of the union republics to declare independence. This caused dissatisfaction with the Soviet government. Moreover, the situation in the republic, as a whole in the Union, continued to heat up. Forces interested in the collapse of the USSR, more and more actively "rocked the boat." The anti-Soviet government of Lithuania carried out “price liberalization”, which led to a sharp increase in retail food prices.
Lithuanian nationalists called for "to protect the authorities" to establish round-the-clock duty at the parliament, radio center and Vilnius TV tower. Anti-Soviet propaganda intensified on television and radio. On 10 of January 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev demanded the abolition of unconstitutional acts and the restoration of the Union Constitution. In order to maintain control over the situation, on 11 of January 1991 of the year, the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party formed the National Salvation Committee (acted until the end of January), which assumed responsibility for resolving the crisis. After several attempts to convince the leaders of the Lithuanian nationalists to stop anti-Soviet propaganda and escalate tensions, the committee turned to the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of the USSR for help in controlling television and radio. The troops of the special forces "Alpha" and units of the Airborne Forces (76-I Pskov Division) were sent to Lithuania. 11 - On 12 on January, Soviet troops took control of a number of facilities, including the Press House in Vilnius, a television relay station in Nemenchin, and other public buildings in Vilnius, Alytus, and Šiauliai.
According to the press, several thousand people were on duty at the Vilnius TV Tower, including armed personnel of the republic’s security service. The roads to the telecentre were blocked by heavy equipment. On the night of January 13 of 1991, the Alpha group stormed the television center and held it until the approach of the internal troops. During the operation, 14 people were killed, including an Alpha officer Viktor Shatsky (mortally wounded by a shot in the back). According to various sources, from 500 to 700 people suffered. Most of them were the result of a crush that arose after warning shots (they were idle) of armored vehicles that arrived at the television center building.
Subsequently, President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, Minister of Defense Dmitry Yazov and other officials declared their non-involvement in the actions of the Soviet military. In fact, the top of the USSR "leaked" the military, who simply did their duty to defend the homeland.
In fact, the events in Lithuania went along the same lines as the events in other republics. At first, part of the Soviet elite, which relied on the collapse of the USSR and the appropriation of public, state property, encouraged the national separatists, did nothing for prevention, sabotaged the actions of law enforcement agencies, which sent signals about a dangerous situation and suggested measures. Negative events were allowed to grow, gain momentum, attract the attention of the "world public", and then threw insufficient forces to suppress them, which only fueled passions, and did not lead to suppression of the rebellion. Then they tried to apply tough measures to those responsible for the events, both genuine and innocent, which exacerbated the situation. As a result, Moscow retreated, and the new republican elites (mostly composed of the former Soviet and communist local elites) entered the new world order. Peoples became consumers-slaves of the capitalist system, and the elite became part of the global (but as a dependent periphery).
Case of Vilnius events
The events in Vilnius, obviously, as planned, caused a lot of noise in the world. The leading world media outlets, as according to a previously set installation, reported the same thing: Russian special forces and Pskov paratroopers staged a massacre in the center of the Lithuanian capital. Gorbachev immediately surrendered our military, saying that he did not know anything about this action. A case was opened in Lithuania on the articles of the Criminal Code on sabotage, coup attempts, the creation of anti-state organizations, intentional murder under aggravating circumstances. The Lithuanian investigation concluded that people died at the hands of soldiers of the Soviet army.
However, these conclusions contradict objective facts. From the materials of the preliminary investigation of the State Commission headed by the Prosecutor General of the USSR Nikolai Trubin, which were handed over to the Lithuanian side in October 1991, it is known that not one of the 14 victims fell at the hands of Soviet soldiers. A ballistic examination of bullet wounds in the dead and wounded clearly shows that the deadly shots were fired not from the front, but from top to bottom. It was not the military who were on the ground who fired, but the unknown shooters who were stationed on the roofs and windows of nearby houses. Witnesses reported the same thing, talking about shots from the forest, shooting from windows and balconies. According to the recollections of the Alpha fighters, only idle cartridges were used during the assault, and fire was fired from the roofs of houses (similar methods would later be used during the coup in Moscow in October 1993).
It’s also known that some people died from car collisions, while others weapons, which was no longer in service with the Soviet army. In addition, there is information that the militants of “Sayudis” shot at the assembled people from the roofs of neighboring houses. The leader of the Lithuanian Communists, M. Burokevicius, also reported that “Butkevicius’ provocateurs ”, a close associate of Landsbergis (head of the Lithuanian Territory Protection Department, actually the Minister of Defense), as well as American specialists who arrived from Poland, worked in the crowd.
In June 1996, the criminal case against which 48 persons were charged was transferred to the Vilnius Regional Court. In August 1999, the former first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania, Mykolas Burokevicius, was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, the former head of the ideological department of the Central Committee, Juozas Ermalavicius, was sentenced to 8 years, four more defendants received sentences ranging from 3 to 6 years. In respect of the remaining 42 people, an investigation was continued. In the 2010 year, laws were passed in Lithuania, according to which for “denying the Soviet occupation” in the 1940-1990 years and “denying the Soviet aggression of the 1991 year” there is a penalty in the form of a fine or imprisonment up to 2 years. In the same year, the acts incriminated by the accused were reclassified as crimes against humanity and war crimes, for which the statute of limitations does not apply. When in 2011, the leader of the Socialist Popular Front Algirdas Paleckis publicly spoke out about the ambiguity of the events of January 13, suggesting that "they shot their own people then," in 2012, he was the first person convicted of "denying Soviet aggression."
In mid-November of 2014, the Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office announced the completion of the investigation. Court hearings began on 27 on January 2016. This became the largest case in Lithuania both in terms of documents (over 700 volumes) and the number of defendants (67 people). The accused are mostly former Soviet leaders, military, and KGB officers. Ministry of Internal Affairs, officials. Now they are citizens of the Russian Federation. Among them are former Minister of Defense of the USSR Dmitry Yazov, head of the Vilnius garrison of the Soviet army Vladimir Uskhopchik, as well as former KGB officer Mikhail Golovatov, who commanded the Alpha group during the assault on the television tower. Almost all the accused were tried in absentia; they were put on the international wanted list. The exception is two Russian citizens. These are reserve colonel Yuri Mel (a resident of Kaliningrad), who was detained in Lithuania in 2014, and retired military Gennady Ivanov (a resident of Vilnius).
On 27 of March 2019 of the year, the Vilnius Regional Court announced the verdict in the case. Yu. Mel was sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment, G. Ivanov - to 4 years, the remaining 65 people were sentenced in absentia from 4 to 14 years. At the same time, the court declared the events of 1991 of the year a continuation of the aggression of the USSR against the Republic of Lithuania, which began in 1940.
Russia has repeatedly stated that the trial in Lithuania is in violation of international law, charges are brought under articles that did not exist during the events themselves. On November 9 on November 2016, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a statement in which it called the process a “politically motivated trial”. In July 2018 of the year, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case against Lithuanian officials, whose actions “show signs of a crime”, as provided for in paragraph 2 of Article 299 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Criminalization of knowingly innocent”). The UK points out that "the events in Vilnius took place during the period when Lithuania became part of the USSR, and the military units performed their official duties, acting in accordance with the legislation of the USSR."
Thus, it is obvious that the Vilnius affair is only one of the events used by the “world community” to create the image of the “evil empire” (Russia-USSR). Traitors from the top of the USSR and local nationalists organized a provocation, framed the Soviet Army and special services for their further decomposition, misinformation and disorientation. The military and the Alpha fighters simply honestly fulfilled their duty to defend the socialist Fatherland, they were set up, and then “leaked”, made extreme. A high-profile rally in Lithuania, as in other national suburbs, was used to break up the USSR in the interests of the West and part of the Soviet “elite”, which was completely decomposed and surrendered the Union in its personal and narrow group interests.
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