MP Bastys mum on joining ruling bloc

“Let’s not rush quite yet. Let me recover after the whole process,” Bastys told journalists at the parliament when asked about his plans to join the ruling coalition after the failed impeachment vote.

After surfacing of his connections with Russian business figures, Bastys last year suspended his membership in the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party and left its political group, currently working in the non-attached group.

The MP said he was not aware of any deal between the ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union and the Social Democratic Party to support him.

“What was important to me was preservation of my honor and the honor of my family, and I managed to do this,” he said after the secret ballot.

“The Constitutional Court‘s ruling was determined by purely subjective, not objective motives. Not by clear criteria but by subjective criteria. In this case, it is only the Seimas that can make the final decision by secret ballot,” said Bastys.

Asked to comment on the reasons behind the MP decision to let him keep the mandate, the politician said it was hard for him to say.

“There are numerous circumstances but I believe that the polygraph test was main reason,” said Bastys.

The MP said he had taken the lie detector test in Poland through a translator. The lie detector allegedly showed that Bastys, when filling out the questionnaire for the permit to handle the fully classified information, did not lie when he failed to specify his acquaintance with Piotr Voyeiko, the former KGB agent.

The MP said he did not understand he had to specify agents he knew in current and former states, as KGB was a structure in the Soviet Union that no longer exists.

In Bastys’ words, the most important lesson he learned from the impeachment was the need to “talk more to institutions to prevent misunderstandings.”

Asked whether he will continue his communication with Voyeiko and other individuals who were the reason behind his failure to gain access to fully classified information, the MP said he had no right to refuse contacts with citizens of Lithuania.

“They are citizens of the Republic of Lithuania, and my MP mandate is free, and the Constitutional Court has concluded that contacts with all citizens of Lithuania is not prohibited. In this sense, I have the right and the duty to communicate with anyone who approach me. It would be irresponsible to say I categorically distance myself,” said Bastys.