Ramūnas Bogdanas
CORPORATE

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. […]

Ramūnas Bogdanas
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. […]

Ramūnas Bogdanas
CORPORATE

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. […]

Ramūnas Bogdanas
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 […]

Hitachi, Visaginas Nuclear PP
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 […]

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. […]

MH17 crash site
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. […]

Heidi Tagliavini
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. […]

Aivaras Abromavičius
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. […]

Sirijos pabėgėliai
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. […]