Recently released, V. Ivanov says the visit from officers was unexpected, however the former leader of the pro-Soviet organisation Jedinstvo is more surprised that intelligence services waited so long because a search warrant was issued already at the start of December, motivated by suspicions of spying.
V. Invanov, who has spent a year in jail for slandering the victims of January 13, muses that he came under suspicion by law enforcement due to his gathering of public information about events in Lithuania, which he later sends to friends in Russia, including Duma deputies.
According to the former head of Jedinstvo, the only thing officers did find was a firearm – a non-functioning gas operated revolver once gifted to him by a friend, which likely led to his arrest and charges of holding an unregistered weapon. V. Ivanov was surprised to be seen as associated in the spying case related to Algirdas Paleckis because apparently, they do not stay in touch.
Information received by Panorama indicates that other than A. Paleckis, who was arrested in October, suspicions have been declared against 6 of his companions, with some of them having also tried to enter Seimas in the latest elections.
One of them is Leonidas Minkevičius, who appears in the MG Baltic case, when a decade ago, he had to help A. Paleckis take the post of Vilnius mayor. Later he become one of the leaders of the Socialist People’s Front founded by A. Paleckis. Suspicions have also been declared against Artūras Šidlauskas.
Among the participants of the case, there may also be a member of the Lithuania Russian Union and another two figures, who aided A. Paleckis in the latest Seimas elections.
Seimas National Security and Defence Committee chairman Vytautas Bakas notes that the investigation is only starting and the list of suspects could expand.