He noted that before Lithuania took the EU Council presidency, the country presumed it may be subjected to cyber or other types of attacks, with such threat envisaged in the public report of the State Security Department.
"Our big neighbor is indeed interested in our Eastern Partnership Program and is probably agitated by its results, and this may be related, furthermore, this is probably not the last time. As we have said in the past, we presumed such steps may be taken, and we should probably say in the context that the program to ensure safety of our missions abroad has not been implemented for years. It has been approved and signed, however, the program is not financed and – I should probably not say this – some of our security officers were simply recalled from embassies, as there was not enough money to keep them there. The security problem of electronic communication and cyber security remains relevant," Paulauskas told BNS.
In his words, the Lithuanian diplomatic recordings published on a website is an attack by certain forces, which do not want the EU to expand to and have connections with Eastern countries.
"Without doubt, some forces do not want the Eastern Partnership program to be in effect, they don't want EU enlargement and communication and stronger relations between Eastern countries and the EU, and the attack – or provocation, I may say – may not be the last," said the head of the National Security and Defense Committee.
Lithuania is holding EU Council presidency in the second half of the year, and the Eastern Partnership summit scheduled for November is one of the key presidency events. The Eastern Partnership initiative covers bilateral and multilateral EU cooperation with Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Moldova, promoting closer ties of the Eastern European nations with the EU.
The MP said diplomats should remember at all times that telephone conversations may not always be secure.
"The State Security Department said in its report that technical means exist and they are used by Russia for tapping conversations and collection of other types of information. There is also a sentence this may happen, and it is listed as a threat. We have said on a number of occasions that transfer of information from embassies is problematic, as we use the old methods. To put it simply, we should say that diplomats should use diplomatic language in telephone conversations among them, they probably understand that connections are secure, and such conversations later lead to certain provocations," he added.
Earlier on Thursday, Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius stated that the records of Lithuanian diplomats' alleged phone conversations, leaked online, are information provocation, adding that his ministry is carrying out an investigation into the incident.
Records were uploaded to youtube.com on July 8, in which, Lithuanian diplomats are said to be involved in a conversation. It is presumed that the diplomats include Zenonas Kumetaitis, deputy director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Eastern Neighborhood Policy Department, and the other one is Lithuania's Ambassador to Hungary Renatas Juska, Lithuania's Ambassador to Azerbaijan Arturas Zurauskas and Foreign Ministry official Gediminas Kasputis. In one of the conversations Zurauskas is said to be having a conversation with Kestutis, a businessman from Lithuania.
All of the conversations feature English-language subtitles.
