Lithuanian Articles

[Mountain Crown]

[quote author=wsj.com]Lithuanian Foreign Minister Resigns Amid CIA Prison Row

Associated Press

VILNIUS, Lithuania—Lithuania's foreign minister said he was resigning Thursday after locking horns with the president over CIA secret prisons and relations with neighboring Belarus.

A parliamentary investigation in December found that Lithuania's national security agency had helped the U.S. intelligence service set up two detention facilities in the Baltic country, though it found no evidence that they actually held prisoners.

Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas has said two facilities set up in 2002 and 2004 were never used to interrogate terror suspects.

President Dalia Grybauskaite has said, however, that she believes suspects were held at the prisons, and she admonished the minister for publicly expressing a different viewpoint.

The minister has also clashed with the president over foreign policy, with Mr. Usackas advocating a tougher stance toward Belarus and its authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko.

"Considering the present situation I am announcing my resignation," Mr. Usackas told reporters, adding he would hand in his resignation later Thursday.
Mr. Usackas, 45, is the third minister to resign from Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius's government since it took office in December 2008.
Analysts said Mr. Usackas' departure will not undermine the center-right coalition, which is grappling with a severe recession.

_Lithuanian Foreign Minister Resigns Amid CIA Prison Row

Torture chambers.

 

[Keit]

Baltic countries, particularly Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are usually quite hysterical about the impending invasion by Russia. No one knows where they got this idea (well, from NATO no doubt), because there is really no good reason what so ever for Russia to do it. I also know from a personal experience how their agriculture suffers from the sanctions and their hate of Russia, and yet they continue with the craziness. Here's a recent example of it.

Dress warm, pack condoms, hide: Lithuania writes guerilla manual for Russian invasion

Lithuania has printed out a 75-page guide to be issued to its citizens in preparation for a potential incursion from the east. The pamphlet promises to turn an ordinary resident into a novice guerilla fighter.

“It is important that civilians have the will the resist, this will make it more difficult for the aggressor country to feel comfortable,” states the manual.

Some 30,000 copies of the survival booklet have been printed, which specifically details a potential invasion from Russia – starting from infiltration of the media, and agitation of the sympathetic populace, onto hybrid warfare, and finally, a full-scale invasion.

http://<iframe width="560" height="...QI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[PerfectCircle]

I am curious to know how do the common people from Baltic countries perceive the whole situation.
Do they really fear Russian attack? Or are they seeing all of this as unnecessary?

 

[Keit]

I am curious to know how do the common people from Baltic countries perceive the whole situation.
Do they really fear Russian attack? Or are they seeing all of this as unnecessary?

Well, based on my personal experiences when I was in Estonia for several months and had a chance to talk to people from all three countries, many of them do buy into the anti-Russian propaganda totally and completely. Russia is the devil. Estonia's Independence day even celebrates the day when they got free from the Soviet "occupation". While in reality, Soviet Union, particularly other agricultural republics such as Belarus and Ukraine, "fed" the Baltic countries in order to allow them to continue enjoying the highest and richest status in the Soviet Union. They were so "posh" during that time, that SU filmmakers were shooting movies there if they needed a "European look". So they certainly didn't "suffer" in any real way.

In fact, they shot themselves in the foot after they got their independence, because they had many economical areas that were underdeveloped or outright missing. This caused many people to leave the country and immigrate elsewhere. Like, for example, there is a very large Lithuanian community in the UK that now suffers from persecutions and racism.

The thing is, that there is a large Russian speaking population in Baltic countries too. And they also face discrimination and segregation to various degrees. But then, they just make sure to keep together. Don't think that they are going to ask Putin for help, if that's what the locals are fearing. ;)

Bottom line is, NATO is using Baltic countries to further its agenda. Russia doesn't need them, especially since they are not considered to be "brotherly countries" like Belarus or Ukraine. To be honest, their mentality is very different from the Russian one, so they wouldn't be a good addition anyway. But it is very amusing to observe how they work themselves out all for nothing.

 

[PerfectCircle]

I am curious to know how do the common people from Baltic countries perceive the whole situation.
Do they really fear Russian attack? Or are they seeing all of this as unnecessary?

Well, based on my personal experiences when I was in Estonia for several months and had a chance to talk to people from all three countries, many of them do buy into the anti-Russian propaganda totally and completely. Russia is the devil. Estonia's Independence day even celebrates the day when they got free from the Soviet "occupation". While in reality, Soviet Union, particularly other agricultural republics such as Belarus and Ukraine, "fed" the Baltic countries in order to allow them to continue enjoying the highest and richest status in the Soviet Union. They were so "posh" during that time, that SU filmmakers were shooting movies there if they needed a "European look". So they certainly didn't "suffer" in any real way.

In fact, they shot themselves in the foot after they got their independence, because they had many economical areas that were underdeveloped or outright missing. This caused many people to leave the country and immigrate elsewhere. Like, for example, there is a very large Lithuanian community in the UK that now suffers from persecutions and racism.

The thing is, that there is a large Russian speaking population in Baltic countries too. And they also face discrimination and segregation to various degrees. But then, they just make sure to keep together. Don't think that they are going to ask Putin for help, if that's what the locals are fearing. ;)

Bottom line is, NATO is using Baltic countries to further its agenda. Russia doesn't need them, especially since they are not considered to be "brotherly countries" like Belarus or Ukraine. To be honest, their mentality is very different from the Russian one, so they wouldn't be a good addition anyway. But it is very amusing to observe how they work themselves out all for nothing.

Thank you for your detailed answer!
So I guess it doesn't help even if you are close to Russia, in case you are not open minded to a degree. Propaganda is just too strong for many.

 

[Persej]

Yes, thank you Keit for your description of mentality of Baltic states toward Russians. They do seem to be quite crazy in that regard.

In the meantime, Russians are just about to 'invade' my country, so we will probably see the same fear mongering in many Balkan countries. NATO is not going to be happy about this.

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2016&mm=10&dd=31&nav_id=99554

 

[PerfectCircle]

And meanwhile in my little country NATO is having exercises with state military :(
http://www.cdm.me/english/military-exercise-demonstrated-montenegros-capacities

 

[Aeneas]

Thanks Keit for your observations about the Baltics and also how the Soviet Union fed them earlier on. It is for an outsider amazing to see the level of Russophobia in the Baltics and how they celebrate Nazism and former SS leaders. All of that is not commented on in the Western press and is just accepted as being normal. And from what I understand, then there was quite a bit of help to the German Nazies during WWII.

Also how much they now suffer due to their anti-Russian policies. Their economy is suffering big time and they are suffering a big brain drain as well as the young people leave the country. One can wonder what will be left of these countries in 10-20 years from now.

 

[Vulcan59]

FWIW, an article about Lithuania,

I saw this piece by reporter Nikita Eliseev. He writes about the Lithuanian Jewish community and how they finally had it up to here with their government’s exaltation of Nazi war criminals. The latest struggle against raising a monument to some standard Nazi butcher. The Jewish leaders try, as best they can, to offer some resistance, but it’s always an uphill battle.

Ukraine War Day #476: Lithuanian Jews Fight Back, Part I

“ For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. ”. (Luke 8:17) Dear Readers: Those who have eyes to see… One thing t…

awfulavalanche.wordpress.com

 

[Leona]

This reminded me of a book I read long time ago - Holocaust Industry by Norman Finkelstein. I still consider it a brave book because it was written by a Jew whose parents went through the Holocaust. It was condemned because it talks about exploitation of the tragedy of millions of Jews through WWII and profiting of American Jews using Holocaust for various, to say the least, as we know, dubious motives.