CORPORATE
Ramūnas Bogdanas. Referendum as bait nr. 1
Once upon a time, when there were far fewer people on this earth and their communities were small, questions that arose for them would be resolved by a chief or council. […]
Articles by Ramunas Bogdanas
CORPORATE
Ramūnas Bogdanas. Where did British Euroscepticism come from?
The roots of the United Kingdom’s Euroscepticism lie in its imperial past. Its welfare was created by the global economy it ruled itself in a state which spanned the world that the sun never set on. Thus, Brits particularly struggle to commit in a company, where their voice is simply one of twenty-eight. The tradition of a global empire clashes with the club rules. […]
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Ramūnas Bogdanas. A question for Orthodox believers in Lithuania
A historic event has finally happened. The Istanbul-based Patriarch of Constantinople, who is the first among equals in the entire Orthodox world, signed a Tomos on Sunday, which granted autocephaly. In other terms, he declared it independent, just as free as the Ukrainian state. The Moscow patriarch, an ideological tendril of the Russian world, controlled from the Kremlin, is furious over it. […]
CORPORATE
Ramūnas Bogdanas. Skvernelis’ godfather Paksas visits Putin
When the Order and Justice party negotiated with the then still whole Social Democrats to join the latter’s’ coalition, the usual division of posts proceeded. Order and Justice received the post of minister of the interior. It turned out that among them, they lacked a politician capable of handling this difficult office; after all, this minister handles both public order matters, the police and municipalities. […]
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R. Bogdanas. Klaipėda and aggression on the Kerch straits
To sit down with the US president and split the world – this is V. Putin’s great dream. A 20 minute long talk was to be held between the two leaders in Buenos Aires during a G-20 meeting and after – two hour negotiations including delegations. All that remains of this is one question that D. Trump posed to V. Putin as he was walking. This question was not about Syria, not about intermediate distance rockets. It was about the attack on Ukrainians on Kerch straits. […]
CORPORATE
Ramūnas Bogdanas. You‘re angry the president didn‘t congratulate V. Putin?
A week ago, Russia featured a spectacle, which was called elections, after which the Lithuanian president did not congratulate Vladimir Putin with his continued reign. There is no obligatory rule in international protocol to greet […]
CORPORATE
Ramūnas Bogdanas. Inheritance in state governance
It has been three decades now that talks have been held in Lithuania about the importance of continuity in state governance. If the measurement is the gap between elections, it is hard to create anything […]
CORPORATE
R. Bogdanas. Snakes and Žemininkai
The Lukiškių Square was declared a representational state square in 1999. However every place, just as every individual has its own biography. It can be erased and hidden or it can display deep links to […]
CORPORATE
Farmers are drunk on power
Lithuanian radio journalist asked the Minister of Health Aurelius Veryga whether he considered the consequences that will result in further bans on alcohol market. “What consequences?” a sincere amazement was heard. But this wasn’t asked […]
CORPORATE
There is one way to halt the construction of Astravyets NPP
It has now been eight years since Lithuania was officially informed of the decision to construct a nuclear power plant in Astravyets, Belarus. Truth be told the decision was more that of Moscow than of […]
CORPORATE
Threat to Lithuania is real and verbal warnings to Russia no longer suffice
It appears this year will have ample concerns and scandals as well, while positive things will be rarer, however it is the successes, not the failings that give hope, without which the future would look bleak. […]
Opinion
Opinion: Information offensives aim at pillars of Lithuanian statehood
City authorities recently removed four groups of Soviet-era statues from the Green Bridge in central Vilnius. Columnist Ramūnas Bogdanas argues that it was a move in the information war that Russia has launched against the West, including Lithuania. The retaliation that followed targeted crucial moments and figures in the nation’s twentieth-century history. […]
Opinion
Opinion: Images of information war
Much have been written in recent years about the broad information war front that Russia opened against the West. Since Lithuania is today, thankfully, part of the West, we get a fair share of the offensive. This is a war, however, without sizzling bullets, without exploding mines or thundering of bombs, so we carry on with our lives as usual, our home windows intact. […]
Opinion
Opinion: Russia’s UN Council veto will not salvage its reputation
Last Thursday’s UN Security Council vote on the resolution, submitted by Malaysia and supported by other nations, to set up an international tribunal for the MH17 downing over Donbass failed because Russia used its power to veto it. […]
Opinion
Opinion: Will Russia escape responsibility for MH17 crash?
Since the moment news broke about a downed passenger plane in eastern Ukraine, Russia has adopted a pose of aggressive defensiveness, although no one was making any accusations against it. Officially, the Kremlin maintains it is not a party to the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and can, at most, act as a mediator between Kiev and the separatists. No one officially disputes that, it is as self-appointed mediator that Russia took part in the Minsk peace talks. […]
Opinion
Opinion: Spark of hope that Russia’s aggression will not pass this time
The German daily Berliner Zeitung was the first one to report about the resignation of Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini as OSCE special envoy in Ukraine and OSCE representative at the Minsk peace talks. This lady made her name in political and diplomatic quarters when the international commission she led published a report on the 2008 Georgian-Russian war. Her departure gives one hope that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia will not be given a Tagliavini treatment. […]
Uncategorized
Lithuanian minister in charge of making Ukraine economy more efficient: 400 ministry staff gone in 7 months
Many Lithuanians follow closely developments in Kiev, where Aivaras Abromavičius, a 39-year-old Vilnius-born businessman, has been put in charge of Ukraine‘s ministry of economy and trade. He is one of several foreigners invited by Ukraine’s current leadership who decided it takes an outsider to tackle corruption and inefficiency that plagues the country’s economy. […]
Opinion
Opinion: Tsipras’s attempt to use Communist Youth Lessons on Greece
If we all sat at a table in a tavern, having fun eating and drinking and then decided to vote if we wanted to pay the bill or not, the chances are that most would vote to pay the bill. What would a table like that look like from the side as it flaunts the results of that vote, demanding that the customers’ opinion be respected and their vote not be trampled on? […]
Opinion
Opinion: An-2 secrets better left untold?
One month after a small Lithuanian aircraft, An-2, crashed into the Baltic Sea on 16 May, the public still knows very little about what happened and why. If officials in charge of the investigation know more, they keep it to themselves. […]
Opinion
Opinion: Differentiating refugees and migrants
Throughout the ages, people have migrated in search of a better life. For some it was about security, for others getting a bit more to eat and then there were those driven by curiosity. The special ability of a person to adapt to new conditions led to us spreading across the world. […]