Milda Aleknonytė| The Lithuania Tribune
The Belarusian KGB posted on their website stating that they barred Belarusian citizens’ espionage activities, which were said to be carried out for the Lithuanian military intelligence. Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated the same day that those accusations do not depict the truth and does not contribute to the improvement of bilateral relations.
In order to understand these allegations, one must look back at the 3rd of July, when a small Swedish plane, filled with 879 pro-free-speech teddy bears allegedly took off from the village of Pociūnai and dropped the teddies over Minsk. The action was staged by Studio Total, a Swedish PR company with a history of high-profile and sometimes deceptive publicity stunts.
Lithuanian state services were then accused of contributing to the “Teddy Bear Drop” by the Belarusian public. On the other hand, authorities in Minsk officially denied reports of any teddy bears with free-speech slogans invading their land, furthermore deny that any Swedish plane crossed their border.
Since then Lithuania has been mentioned in a negative context in the Belarusian press. Now the Belarusian KGB posted on Thursday that “During an agency action, the KGB employees arrested citizen “F” with evidence of Lithuanian military intelligence connections. At the same time, based on the fact of secret transfer of information to foreign special services, others persons were detained, who supported his communication.” Arvydas Anušauskas, chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee, thought it was suspicious that in the KGB statement, the alleged spies voluntarily confessed to their acts. For such acts one can get 7-15 years in jail in Belorussia.
President Dalia Grybauskaitė stated in her press statement that “Belarus is an important neighbor of Lithuania, with which we share a multifaceted relationship, therefore there is a need to make this cooperation balanced, constructive and mutually beneficial.”
