Yashin described his meetings in Lithuania over the past week in his accounts on Twitter and Facebook.
"I am having a useful time in Vilnius. Had a meeting with Lithuania's presidential adviser, foreign vice-minister, and a group of parliamentarians. I am persuading them to support the Magnitsky act in Europe and personal sanctions against investigators and judges in the Bolotnoye case (a criminal case on opposition protest rallies on the eve Vladimir Putin's inauguration as president). We will do our best to bar the defiant bad guys from using their real estate and bank accounts in European countries," Yashin posted on Facebook and Twitter.
Egidijus Vareikis, a member of the Lithuanian parliamentary European Affairs Committee, said the Monday's meeting with Yashin was informal and, among other matters, addressed the Magnitsky act.
"The meeting was informal, we discussed the political situation in Russia, we had questions, I was a pre-election observer during the presidential election (in Russia) and said that some in the West deemed it senseless to wait for Russia to become a Western country, as Putin made Russia what he needed it to be. I asked (Yashin) about his opinion on my position, and he agreed that this was what the situation actually was," Vareikis told BNS on Tuesday.
Presidential adviser Jovita Neliupšienė refused to elaborate on the meeting with the Russian opposition figure. In a reply to BNS, the President's Office said that "advisers hear many various opinions on a daily basis, this was one of working conversations."
Russian lawyer Sergey Magnitsky said he had revealed a 235-million-dollar tax evasion scheme involving state officials. However, he was soon arrested and died in prison in 2009.
After his detention, the authorities charged him with the crimes he had disclosed.
In late 2012, the United States adopted the so-called Magnitsky act, envisaging sanctions for Russian officials believed to have something to do with the lawyer's death.These people were barred from getting US visas and their US accounts were frozen.
In response, Russia banned adoption of Russian children by American nationals.
Lithuanian prosecutors suspect that USD 13 million, fraudulently obtained from the Russian budget in an embezzlement scheme disclosed by late Magnitsky, might have been laundered through offshore company accounts in Lithuania's Ūkio Bankas.
Prosecutors have confirmed to BNS that the investigation was opened in response to a request by representatives of investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, where Magnitsky worked.
Prosecutors have imposed a temporary restriction of property rights to more than 20 offshore companies with accounts in Ūkio Bankas.
Lithuanian MEP Leonidas Donskis, who joined the interparliamentary Magnitsky group last week, has expressed certitude that the European Union would have the courage to follow the US example and make a blacklist of Russian officials.
