Russian journalists and NGOs are used to monitor opposition, Lithuanian agency says

Based on the 26-page report, during the meeting organised by the Ronald Reagan House in Lithuania, members of the Russian opposition were monitored by pro-Kremlin representatives day and night. At the end of the visit, on the plane from Vilnius to Moscow, journalist from the Russian TV channel Rossiya 1, Alexander Buzaladze, happened to run into and speak to Boris Nemtsov, one of the Russian opposition leaders who was assassinated in Moscow in February.

The VSD also reported about the event hosted by the Eastern Europe Studies Centre in Lithuania in which representatives of the Russian opposition and the civil society participated. The event was attended among others by a Russian citizen from the Russian radical nationalist organisation Nashi. According to the report, he acted rather openly, thus it could be assumed that one of his goals was to show that participants of the event were being controlled.

In late March the VSD published the assessment of national security threats. The document states that Lithuania’s principled position regarding the conflict in Ukraine led to active intelligence activities by Russia and Belarus in Lithuania.