Klaipėda councilor gets flour-bombed during protest over partisan statements (Updated)

Updates throughout.

The police plan to assess the actions of the liberal councilor and of another man who tried to hit Titov.

Pictures and videos published by the lrytas.lt ir 15min.lt news websites and social media show that Titov was flour-bombed by another man on the street.

“Anther protest participant tried to hit him (Titov) but police officers were nearby and prevented him,” Raimondas Vaitkevičius, deputy chief of Klaipėda County Police, told BNS Lithuania. “Both men have been identified and evidence is being collected and later decision will be made on whether to launch an administrative offence probe or a pre-trial investigation.”

Vaisvila’s actions were on Thursday criticized by his colleagues during the municipal council’s meeting. Mayor Vytautas Grubliauskas, also representing the Liberal Movement, said the colleagues’ behavior should be assessed by fellow party-members.

The Council of Klaipėda City Municipality is deciding on Thursday on setting up an impeachment commission for Titov who falsely claimed in public that Ramanauskas-Vanagas was involved in the killings of innocent civilians.

Prosecutors have already launched a pre-trial investigation into his claims. Titov said he based his claims on the records of a Soviet court. Historians underline, however, that any research into the resistance movement in Lithuania cannot be based solely on KGB files where partisans were often called bandits and there was a lot of defamatory information about them.

Ramanauskas-Vanagas lead partisans in the southern region of Dzūkija. Together with other partisan commanders, he signed the Lithuanian Partisans Declaration of February 16, 1949.

Armed fight for the restoration of Lithuania’s independence lasted from 1944 until 1953. Ramanauskas-Vanagas was detained in 1956, brutally tortured by the Soviets and executed a year later.

His remains were only found and identified earlier this year at a cemetery in Vilnius and will be buried in the fall.