„World Press Photo“ paroda. Apsilankykite
Bilietai
2013 08 01

Diplomatic leak is aimed at discrediting Lithuania, says MP Arvydas Anušauskas

The diplomatic conversations were secretly recorded and later published in an effort to discredit Lithuania, says Arvydas Anušauskas, a member of the parliamentary National Security and Defense Committee who headed the panel in the previous parliament.
Arvydas Anušauskas
Arvydas Anušauskas / Juliaus Kalinsko / 15min nuotr.

Anušauskas said he had no doubts that special services of other countries tap conversations of all Lithuanian diplomatic envoys. "We can be sure of that," he told BNS when asked whether all ambassadors had their conversations tapped.

"Clearly, the information was published for a reason, to receive a certain response. It was a secret recording of conversation from the outside that was not organized by our secret services, and it was published online under an alien name with the aim of getting a response and probably a discredit of Lithuania," said Anušauskas. In his words, "the neighbor demonstrated its capacity to use the information media fast and achieve something that may be a short-term objective but still cause some degree of commotion."

He noted that Lithuanian institutions should learn a lesson from the case and earmark more money to information security. "We have to learn from the case and the fact that information security has been getting too little attention for a long time. Institutions have to ensure secrecy of their information to achieve the necessary resources," Anušauskas said.

Artūras Paulauskas, chairman of the parliamentary National Security and Defense Committee, says that the recorded and published conversations of allegedly Lithuanian diplomats probably won't be the last attack against the Lithuanian efforts to perform the European Union (EU) Eastern Partnership program.

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. 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.

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 recordings feature English-language subtitles.

Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius says 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.

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