Lithuania says Moscow behind defacing of anti-Soviet monument
VILNIUS - Lithuanian prosecutors said on Wednesday Russia's GRU military intelligence service had ordered the defacement of a monument to an anti-Soviet resistance leader in January 2024.
Three residents of Estonia have been charged with travelling to fellow Baltic state Lithuania to carry out the act, prosecutor Rimas Bradunas told a press conference.
The statue in southern Lithuanian town Merkine of Adolfas Ramanauskas, kneeling with his rifle in hand, was covered in red paint. Ramanauskas led armed resistance to the Soviet occupation of Lithuania after World War Two before being executed in 1957.
"Our investigation determined that these people, acting in an organised group, were executing the orders of Russian special services, in particular GRU, to destabilise the country," Bradunas said.
Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Two of the three charged are dual Estonian-Russian citizens, while one is a Russian citizen. They were arrested in Estonia and handed over to Lithuania after an investigation involving the intelligence services of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the prosecutor said.
The three, who are construction workers, were paid from a few hundred euros to a few thousand euros for their job, which lasted several months and included a survey of potential defacement targets, said Bradunas.
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They face up to seven years in jail if convicted on the charges, which include assisting another state to act against the Republic of Lithuania.
Lithuanian prosecutors charged two people in March with attempting to start a fire at Vilnius IKEA store in May 2024, and accused Russia's military intelligence of orchestrating it.
Russia dismissed the accusations as baseless and driven by what it describes as Russophobia.
It has denied allegations by all three Baltic states, annexed by Moscow during World War Two but now part of NATO and the European Union, of cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns and military pressure, especially since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. REUTERS
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