Seimas panel looks into recall of defence attache from Russia

“As a committee, we support the candidates and should therefore receive feedback about whether we have made a mistake or there have been circumstances that emerged later. It turned out that everything happened much later, even after the minister had signed a decree on his appointment,” the committee’s chairman Artūras Paulauskas told BNS after the meeting.

In Paulauskas’ words, more thorough answers about the circumstances that led to the diplomat’s recall will be provided by the Defence Ministry’s Second Investigation Department.

“The probe is conducted by the Second (Investigation) Department, we will probably get the answers after the investigation about his hasty second marriage. He had to declare (the marriage), however, this leads to many questions about the female being a Russian citizen, children living elsewhere and the mother living in Russia, this would have been viewed differently when he was designated, and he did not submit the declaration, he probably aimed to avoid any doubts about his wife. (…) I think his major mistake was failure to provide the information in time,” said the head of the committee.

Earlier this month, Lithuania officially recalled Pikturna from the post of defense attache to Russia – he had to return to Vilnius for political consultations. He was recalled after it turned out he was married to a Russian citizen. Defence Minister Juozas Olekas had earlier confirmed Pikturna had been married to a Lithuanian female at the time he was sent to Russia.