"It has finally been said clearly what third countries, first of all – Russia and Belarus, operate in the territory of Lithuania with the help of their special services. I think that the clarity, which has been constantly declared by Estonia's security police in its reports for the past 15 years, is crucial to making the society understand the difficult conditions our intelligence community has to work under," Anušauskas told BNS in comment of the report published by the State Security Department on Friday. The document reads that Russian services exercise technical methods and human contacts to collect information, get connections in Lithuanian institutions and, in some cases, attempt to influence decisions made by Lithuanian state institutions and companies.
Via public and political organizations operating in Lithuania, efforts are made to instigate ethnic, social and ideological hatred, with the unfavorable foreign activities expected to become more active in the coming few years, reads the part of the report, which was made public for the first time last year.
This year's report also specifies methods of Russian intelligence and security service operations in Lithuania - the instruments against Lithuania include electronic intelligence, cyber spying and unconventional cover, according to the State Security Department, and Russian intelligence and security services have technical means for tapping telephone conversations of persons they are interested in.
According to the document, Russian services in 2012 continued their efforts to make contacts with representatives of state institutions, political parties, media companies, research centers, high-tech companies and ethnic minorities. The contacts are not only used for collecting information but also for coordination and control of organizations and persons representing Russian interests.
Also, some of the operations of intelligence and security services of Belarus and other countries were aimed against Lithuanian interests, the department said. Some countries aim to collect information they plan to later use in political and economic decision-making.
