Lithuanian government proposes to extend anonymity guarantees for former KGB agents

The amendments are aimed at protecting “the human and civic rights, freedoms and personal security” of people who voluntarily admitted their past collaboration with the Soviet special services.

The Lithuanian government also wants these people “protected from the influence, blackmail and recruitment by other special services or attempts to involve them in illegal activities”.

“The draft amendments have been approved taking into account the fact that the Lithuanian Supreme Council’s resolution of 27 March 1990, which encouraged people to admit their collaboration with the Soviet secret services, also guaranteed that information about such people would never be officially published,” the Lithuanian government said in a statement.

The amendments will be put before the Lithuanian parliament under an emergency procedure.

During the Cabinet’s sitting on Wednesday, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius said the amendments were necessary to prevent “all those ongoing speculations in Lithuania” which “do nothing good for our country”.

The ruling parties in Lithuania have recently discussed the possibility to release information about former KGB agents in Lithuania, who had voluntarily admitted their collaboration, since the classification of such information expires this year.