Tamašunienė urges EU legal response to Moscow ruling on resistance

Lithuanian Justice Minister Rita Tamašunienė says the European Union should have legal tools to respond to disinformation campaigns, after a Moscow court branded Baltic anti-Soviet resistance figures “accomplices of Nazi Germany,” LRT reported, citing BNS.

“We see this as a major disinformation campaign, and the European Union should have the ability to respond, including through legal measures, when such proceedings take place,” Tamašunienė told BNS on Thursday. She said the issue would be discussed during Lithuania’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Tamašunienė said the ruling was not expected to have significant legal consequences for now. If it concerned people who were still alive, Russia could use Interpol to pursue them, she said. Lithuania would notify Interpol of any abuse, and Russian requests would likely not be carried out, she added.

“Lithuania did not participate in these criminal proceedings and will not do so,” Tamašunienė said, describing the rulings as falsifications of historical facts.

This week, the Moscow court ruled that 13 people from the Baltic states and several organisations had been accomplices of Nazi Germany in war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Soviet people during the Second World War. Those named included Juozas Ambrazevičius, head of Lithuania’s Provisional Government in 1941; partisan commander Juozas Lukša; writer Bronius Krivickas, who was killed in the struggle for freedom; the Lithuanian Activist Front; and the Lithuanian Nationalist Union.

The court said it based its ruling on archival documents from Russian agencies and explanations concerning the alleged criminal acts of the people and organisations from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The Lithuanian military has repeatedly said that Russia’s propaganda focuses on the country’s historical memory policy.