Court hears case over planned terrorist attacks targeting two people

Lithuania’s General Prosecutor’s Office has sent to court a criminal case against six people accused of terrorist offences, including planning to kill two people because of their political views and public activities, LRT reported.

According to the pre-trial investigation, members of an organised terrorist group planned an attack in Lithuania targeting at least two people. One was allegedly selected for public opposition activity directed against Russia’s current authorities, while the other was targeted for publicly providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Media reports previously identified the alleged targets as Ruslan Gabbasov, a leader of the Bashkir national movement living in Lithuania, and public figure Valdas Bartkevičius, who collects support for Ukraine. Authorities later confirmed that Bartkevičius was the Lithuanian citizen referred to in a statement by the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau.

The six defendants face charges including participation in an organised terrorist group, recruitment for terrorist activity, financing terrorism, travelling for terrorist purposes, preparing to carry out a terrorist act, illegally collecting information about a person’s private life, unlawful possession of software and passwords, assisting another state in acting against the Republic of Lithuania, and unlawful possession of narcotic substances without intent to distribute them.

The case was separated from a larger and complex investigation by the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau, which is continuing. The investigation, launched in 2025, is organised and led by a prosecutor from the General Prosecutor’s Office’s Department for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Corruption. The bureau is cooperating with the State Security Department and international partners.

Fourteen people currently face suspicions in the ongoing investigation over possible terrorist and other criminal acts.

The investigation began after a Russian citizen living in Lithuania contacted officers in early 2025 after finding a tracking device left by an unidentified person in his car. Investigators later determined that his life and health faced a real threat.

As the investigation continued, authorities identified the alleged perpetrators and their assistants and established that they were also planning to kill a Lithuanian citizen. Investigators said the available evidence indicated that both victims were selected because of their political views and related public activities.

From the summer of 2024, several citizens of foreign countries and Lithuania who lived in Lithuania or had travelled there specifically for that purpose allegedly collected information about the potential victims using technical surveillance equipment. The countries listed by authorities were Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Greece.

The main suspects were detained in Vilnius on March 12, 2025, with the assistance of officers from the Lithuanian police counter-terrorism operations unit Aras.

The case file submitted to the Vilnius Regional Court contains 51 volumes of documents.