Russia has all features of terrorism – Lithuanian president

“We all see that our neighbour and the neighbour of Ukraine is acting in a way that a neighbour and a country shouldn’t, if it cares about international law and international commitments and the agreements it has signed. We see the Russian and Russian troops present in in Eastern Ukraine today, whereas the country is openly lying to deny this. A country that orders its troops to remove signs of identification, a country that brings in the army and heavy munitions without identification signs – such country features all characteristics of international terrorism. This is what I can say,” the Lithuanian president said at a joint news conference with the visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Vilnius on Friday.

Meanwhile, Grybauskaitė refrained from comments on Russia’s statements about plans to cease diplomatic relations and the remarks about her rhetoric. “I do not comment on statements by individual politicians of Lithuania and [politicians of] other countries,” she stated.

On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry‘s spokes Alexander Lukashevich stated that Grybauskaitė’s rhetoric exceed even the most extremist Kiev statements, she should tone down “her fervor of Komsomol activist” and “drop off the complexes about her Soviet past.”

“The Lithuanian president should tone down her ‘fervor of a Komsomol activist’ and drop off the complexes about her Soviet past, which obviously pushed her into being holier than the Pope,” Lukashevich said.

“Her proclamations only impede the search for solutions to the Ukrainian crisis instead of facilitating it. In contrast, soberly minded politicians who are not trying to win the likings of marginal forces and are really alarmed by the situation in Ukraine abide by a different, responsible approach,” Lukashevich said in a communique published on the ministry’s website.

Deputy head of the Russian parliamentary Communist Party Nikolay Kolomeytsev stated that Russia should respond to the Lithuanian leader’s “rude and cynical words,” suggesting that the International Affairs Committee should “prepare a statement and maybe even an order to introduce new economic sanctions against Lithuania, or maybe even a motion to stop diplomatic relations.”

This came in response to Grybauskaitė’s interview to the Lithuanian national radio LRT where the Lithuanian president stated that failure to stop Russia in Ukraine may cause the aggression to spread in entire Europe. She dubbed Russia a terrorist state.

Ukrainian administration and NATO maintain Russia supports the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk regions with both arms and troops, while Russia has officially denied such accusations.