A cynical task for the Kremlin: these Lithuanian officials simply need to be captured

The Kremlin’s anger over the 2019 sentences handed down in the January 13 case is taking increasingly bizarre and horrific forms. After the Russian inquiry committee announced in December that Vilnius Regional Court judges Virginija Pakalnyte-Tamošiūnaitė, Artūras Šumskas and Ainora Kornelia Macevičienė had been charged in the absence of allegedly illegal convictions of Russian citizens and an international search was announced Lithuanian, Vilnius also took action.

Lithuania has called on the European Commission to help protect the Lithuanian judges who convicted former Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Jazov last year and more than 60 former Soviet officials for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Furthermore, the Lithuanian representative Margarita Šniutytė-Daugėlienė Šniutytė-Daugėlienė contacted the representatives of all the countries of the European Union and the United States, Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine and Moldova in Eurojust and asked them to inform their competent authorities on possible requests for Russian legal assistance in this indictment case. The authorities are also requested to report on the possible publication of international raids of judges in the case of January 13 through the Interpol channel.

However, the Kremlin’s propaganda speakers have been maturing for some time. The appeals are particularly cynical as we approach the 30th anniversary of the January events: Russia increasingly denies the Kremlin’s role in bloody events, develops conspiracy theories, mocks victims, and now calls for active action this year. so that the world knows the Kremlin’s version.

Not just legal prosecution

The idea of ​​taking legal action against the judges and prosecutors in the January 13 case has been around in Russia for some time. International law specialists emphasize that Russia’s attempts are illegal, illogical and the decision of the Vilnius Regional Court was well-founded, reasoned and fully proven, although the cases of some defendants were filed in the Lithuanian Court of Appeal in the middle of November. The judges promise to announce the decision in March.

However, the Kremlin was unimpressed and implemented threats to prosecute Lithuanian officials. However, Kremlin spokesmen suggest taking an even more difficult path. The rubaltic.ru portal, called one of the main spokespersons of the Kremlin in the Baltic countries, and its editor, Alexander Nosovičius, published an article on January 6 entitled “Four Russian tasks in the Baltic countries in 2021.” Among these tasks are the defense of the Russian “journalists” in Latvia, the clarification of relations with Estonia and the transfer of transit through all the Baltic States and Belarus into Russian hands, financially punishing the “pribalta”. However, the first and most important task is the announcement of the “Truth” about the events at the Vilnius TV Tower on January 13, 1991.

Noting that the anti-Russian policy in the Baltic countries is supposed to be only strengthened this year, A. Nosovičius, first of all, notes that Russia must respond “strongly from the beginning of 2021. It is January 13 that Lithuania commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of Defenders of Freedom Day, recalling the events of January 1991, especially the night of January 13, when the Soviet military stormed the television tower and the radio and television building. During the assault, 14 peaceful civilians were killed and hundreds were injured.

Lithuania commemorates these events every year, and the 30th anniversary is a symbolic date, but, according to A. Nosovičius, such a commemoration is just one way to divert attention from the particularly bad situation of COVID-19 and rising unemployment in the country.

And while the situation with the management of the coronavirus in Lithuania is indeed bad and the economic situation, despite better results than feared, is still not so bad, the increase in the ranks of the unemployed is a fact, Links to the alleged focus on the January 13 case are strange. Only because the convictions in the case were announced in 2019, and only Russia itself, where most of those convicted are hiding, has been particularly active in escalating this issue recently.

However, according to A. Nosovičius, Russia’s task is to reveal to the widest possible international audience the “truth” about “the fighting at the Vilnius TV tower as a bloody provocation by the S sepajūdis separatists.” All the facts have already been collected: books have been written about that night, testimonies of witnesses have been collected, statements of legal experts have been collected, evidence of photographs and videos.

And although all these facts made it possible to prove the guilt of the accused in court, according to A. Nosovičius, everything was the other way around, because even “the S losjūdis leaders spoke openly about the snipers in the television tower”, although such a theory of the conspiracy “they shot their own” was raised only by Soviet soldiers, local collaborators and Algirdas Paleckis, who had previously been convicted of such accusations undermining defenders of freedom on January 13, and was arrested again in 2018 and is being tried for espionage for the benefit of Russia in the case of January 13.

Such unsuccessful efforts by Russia and its supporters to bring justice in the January 13 case, according to A. Nosovičius, are simply asking for an answer. And it can only be one: viral information.

“The best way to do this is to capture the Lithuanian judges and prosecutors who, in the case of January 13, planted the completely innocent Yuri Melis, who lit tank lights in a television center and was convicted of crimes against humanity “urged A. Nosovičius.

Guilt is denied, though it’s been proven

He did not specify what it would mean to “capture” Lithuanian judges and prosecutors. In recent years, Russia has been condemned and sanctioned for the rampage of its intelligence services in the West, from attempts to chemically poison the Skripali family, Alexei Navalna, to shootings in Berlin, killing a former Chechen fighter and brutal espionage.

So what measures and where can Russia take against Lithuanian officials can only be speculated, but the decision to prosecute the Kremlin has already been made.

At the time, J. Melis was the only person trapped behind bars and serving a real custodial sentence: he was arrested in 2014, crossing the border between Lithuania and Russia. The sentence imposed on him should end on March 12 of this year, unless the court decides otherwise.

On January 13, the Television Tower was stormed by Soviet troops, including then-Lieutenant J. Melis, who was in command of the crew of one of the four T-72 tanks (No. 544).

He himself admitted that three shots of empty cartridges had been fired from the tank, but that he himself had not killed or injured anyone. The Vilnius Regional Court ruling emphasizes that the tank does not. 544, led by J. Melio, “breaking through the fence surrounding the television tower area on the west side and maneuvering dangerously among the civilians there, entered the area where he fired at least three times from the cannon with empty cartridges, released smoke screens “.

It is true that the testimony of the witnesses registered that even the sound of empty projectiles caused serious injuries and contributed to the death of at least one victim: Rolandas Jankauskas.

“International humanitarian law prohibits a war attack, when one of the four T-72 tanks fired from a tank cannon with a knock-out sound cartridge and RJ fell to the ground by a wave of gunfire, was pierced by military equipment of caterpillars dangerously maneuvered in the area of ​​the TV tower, which caused a strong body compression between the hard beech objects, multiple fractures of the skull and other skeletal bones, ruptures of internal organs, acute bleeding in the abdominal and thoracic cavities , in other words, the victim was intentionally murdered, ”the court ruling highlights.

That night, Juozas Olekas MEP, who was a doctor by profession, said that a total of about 700 people were injured by the shooting. Furthermore, at least 3 of the 13 victims that night died under the tracks of the tanks, including Loreta Asanavičiūtė, who and her friend were crushed by tank no. 502, led by the commander of the shared regiment regiment, Nikolai Astachov.

Furthermore, even the execution of orders does not exempt from liability. As stated in the court order, “The criminal offenses charged to all the defendants in this case were committed in 1991. They were considered crimes under international law.”

“The defendants, being the leaders and active members of the PCL / CPSU Central Committee and the soldiers of the USSR force structures who participated in the military attack, could and should have foreseen that they could be prosecuted and punished for crimes According to the Supreme Court of Lithuania, the law of the Supreme Court of Lithuania establishes that the execution of an order, even in the case of strict subordination relationships, does not exclude liability for crimes against humanity, ”the ruling also establishes that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) even an ordinary soldier in a difficult situation due to a political regime cannot blindly obey orders that flagrantly violate fundamental human rights.

The court’s ruling also makes clear why the defense used by the defendants and Kremlin spokesmen in the January 13 case, that the military not only complied with orders but also believed they were complying with orders. legitimate Soviet authorities, is erroneous and does not absolve.

Kremlin conspiracy theories suggest that Soviet soldiers fired only imitation ammunition that night, although eyewitness testimonies, forensic documents, archive footage and buildings show gunshot wounds, the use of real combat bullets, and the marks left behind. by the television tower and Rad. buildings

Thus, the desire of A. Nosovičius and the Kremlin to “capture Lithuanian judges and prosecutors” to “reveal to the whole world” the cases of J. Melis and other convicts on January 13 can end in a predictable scandal, but also in another defeat for Russia. The evidence provided by Lithuania in the most important case in the history of Independence.