"We are facing a very complicated situation in the public sphere. I don’t know but for some reason some Polish politicians decided that in the short-term, it would be better to have Russia as a friend, and all other smaller countries, which are not so important, could become scapegoats. It seems that this is the role we have been given," Grybauskaitė said.
The Lithuanian president, who came to Chicago to attend a NATO summit, rejected Warsaw's reproaches regarding the situation of Poles in Lithuania, saying that Lithuania had the best conditions outside Poland for people to receive education in the Polish language. She also added that tension was worsening the situation for Lithuanians living in Poland.
"I only want to say that there are 160 Polish schools in the world [outside Poland], and over 100 are located in Lithuania. Lithuania is the only European country where one can receive education from a kindergarten to a university in Polish. There are Polish textbooks for grades 1-12," the Lithuanian president said.
"When the Polish president came to Lithuania on 16 February, I put all textbooks we have published in Lithuania for Polish people and all Lithuanian textbooks available in Sejny. The difference was approximately tenfold. But it's not an argument. The political situation is that we are too little to be heard. But there's a wish to spread not very positive information. And that is really starting to worsen things for Lithuanian people in Sejny," the Lithuanian president said.
"There's still tension and it’s not going anywhere as the Polish authorities are awaiting general elections in Lithuania and hope that new political powers will be allegedly more favorable to minorities, but in fact it's not clear to whom specifically" the president said.
