From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 10/9/2006 3:32 AM Lithuania Expels Russian Diplomat for Spying
09.10.2006
MosNews Lithuania expelled a high-ranking Russian diplomat on Sunday for suspected spying, the independent Baltic News Service (BNS) reported, quoting unnamed sources.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman declined immediate comment on the report but invited reporters to what he called an informal briefing on the issue on Monday. A spokesman for the Russian embassy in Vilnius also refused comment, the Reuters news agency reported.
BNS said the sources told it that the Vilnius-based diplomat had been ordered to leave Lithuania on suspicion of espionage and “seeking to influence Lithuania’s determination to support Georgia amid its conflict with Moscow”.
A diplomatic crisis between Georgia and Russia erupted last month after Georgian law enforcement officers detained several Russian officers on suspicion of spying for Moscow.
The suspected spies were later handed over to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
On Lithuanian state television, Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas said he would “neither confirm nor deny” the expulsion report.
The head of Lithuania’s Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Raimundas Lopata, hinted at knowledge of the affair, telling state television: “Lithuania remains a state protecting its national interests, which in this given case are related to Lithuania’s support of Georgia.”
Lopata noted that this was not the first case of its kind.
In 2004, Lithuania ordered out the Russian military attache and two other diplomats for alleged intelligence activities. Moscow retaliated by expelling the Lithuanian military attache.
The small Baltic state of Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union before gaining independence from Moscow in 1991, but its road to statehood was more troubled than that of other former Soviet republics.
An earlier independence bid the previous year was throttled by a Soviet economic blockade and 13 unarmed Lithuanian civilians were killed in early 1991 while defending the Vilnius TV tower from an attack by an armored KGB unit. http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/10/09/lithspy.shtml
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