bns: Lithuania becoming increasingly disturbed by Russia's views of Soviet Union - President
Updated 2008-07-08
VILNIUS, July 08, BNS - President Valdas Adamkus stressed that Lithuania is becoming increasingly disturbed by Russia's views of the Soviet Union and urged to speak about that period with "accurate precision".
"Obviously, there have been different periods in the history of our mutual relationship that dates back centuries. However, we are being increasingly disturbed by Russia's views of the state which it itself pronounced, in the Belovezh accords, a 'geopolitical reality that no longer exists.' I can assure you that nobody in Lithuania is going to deny the input of the Russian nation in the fight against Fascism. Just like the input of any other nation -- the Ukrainians, Belarusians, Kazakhs," Adamkus said on Tuesday when accepting credentials from Russia's new Ambassador Vladimir Chkhikvadze.
In his words, one must not forget that this, no longer existent country, stood behind crimes against the international law and humanity in the Baltic countries, Hungary, Czechia, Poland, Afghanistan.
"I do not thinks it is the goal of Russia's policy to identify with these crimes," the president said. Therefore, Adamkus believes it is crucial to learn to talk about the complicated period with accurate precision, without offending and insulting anyone.
In the president's words, Lithuania is also looking forward to some solid steps in the field of legal cooperation as well, particularly when it comes to solving dormant cases and combating the instigation of hatred, regardless of whether it is done by way of pickets that overstep the borders of the free speech or by launching cyber attacks.
The ceremony to accredit the ambassador had been scheduled for June 30, however the President's Office later postponed it saying that Adamkus's agenda had changed. Unofficial sources then said that the postponement of the meeting between Adamkus and Chkhikvadze was a conscious diplomatic gesture.
The decree on designation of Chkhikvadze, a career diplomat, as ambassador to Lithuania was signed by the then Russian president Vladimir Putin in the beginning of May. Prior to the appointment, Chkhikvadze headed the Russian Foreign Ministry's Security Department since 2005.
Chkhikvadze, 52, graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and spent many years in various posts in diplomatic service of the Soviet Union and Russia, with Angola and Colombia among them, and was the consul general in Barcelona and Ambassador to Chile.
