Karkauskas appointed head of Pagėgiai border guard unit

Albertas Karkauskas has been appointed head of the Pagėgiai Border Guard Unit, which guards Lithuania’s border with Russia, LRT reported on Tuesday. Acting State Border Guard Service chief Donatas Škarnulis made the appointment, effective November 3.

Karkauskas, 49, previously headed the service’s Criminal Investigation Board. He began his career in the interior affairs system in 1996 with Alytus police and later worked in criminal police. He joined the State Border Guard Service in 2005 and has held various roles in criminal intelligence and internal affairs units, led the Criminal Investigation Board and served as deputy head of the Coast Guard Border Unit.

The Pagėgiai unit guards 256 kilometres of Lithuania’s border with Russia and controls 266 kilometres of its border with Latvia. It has 10 border guard stations and operates at the Kybartai and Panemunė road border crossing points, as well as the Kybartai and Pagėgiai railway crossing points. More than 800 border guards work for the unit.

Rimantas Petrauskas, who had led the Pagėgiai unit, is moving to the post of head of the Vilnius Border Guard Unit, which guards the border with Belarus. Darius Škarnulis, the unit’s former head, will lead the Criminal Investigation Board.