On 6 December Lithuanian witnessed a birth of one more political party.  Over one thousand delegates have established another, one man, on this occasion, one-woman party, led by the controversial Kazimiera Prunskiene.  The Professor of Economics, the first Lithuania’s Prime Minster, who holds a title of the Russian Duchess has established the Lithuanian People’s Union.

A shocking piece of information about the party is not that it declared itself belonging to Centre-left, and that its founding congress was attended by the by the Chairperson of the Russian Duma’s International Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachev, officials from the Russian Kaliningrad region, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russian Ambassador to Lithuania Vladimir Chkhivadze.  It is also not too surprising that Mr Aurdius Butkevicius, one of the most controversial post independence politicians, the first Lithuania’s Minister for Defence, who was caught taking a bribe and served a sentence, was present in the congress.

A shocking piece of information is that it a first time in the Lithuanian history when a member of the Lithuanian political establishment (even though her standing drastically declined recently, and I am not mentioning a marginal Frontas party) has openly declared her loyalty to…Russia.

Prunskiene said in her speech that she did not fear that her party could be titled as being pro-Russian, because, in her words, this is the direction Lithuania should search for strategic relations and seek benefits. According to those who participated in the congress this statement drew applause of participants of the event.

Further more, the draft resolution of the party’s programme says, “We have to stop demonstrating hostility towards important economic partners – Russia and Belarus – and make better use of various fields of cooperation”.  Further statements about pragmatic relations with European countries of Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, as well as Russia, Belarus and Ukraine do not matter anymore.

A political analyst, Tomas Janeliunas, said to Baltic News Service ‘Up until now, there were only certain suspicions, which were not always well-reasoned, that Russia’s state institutions or political organizations may maintain contacts with individual politicians of Lithuania. Current guests to Prunskiene’s party show they have no reason to hide and they intend to cooperate openly and without concealed objectives.  The bulk of Lithuania’s society sees Russia as an unfriendly country. Either the public demonstration of guests from Russia is intended for a small portion of Lithuanian voters who may like the demonstration of friendship with Russia’s ruling forces, or this is Prunskiene’s poor political strategy.’

On the other hand, it is welcoming development in the Lithuanian politics since one of the parties’ ‘came out’ and indicated their real allegiances and values.  However, this declaration of love to Russia might make it more difficult for Prunskiene to refute another pending title that she is also know in Lithuania.  The title of Šatrijos ragana (A Witch of Šatrija) that allegedly was given to her by the Soviet KGB.  Never the less, it is almost certain that the party will never suffer lack of funds, hence attention from some corrupted Lithuania media outlets.