Lithuania involved in Russian-Georgian conflict

Read it in Russian

According to Lithuania media reports, in the first days of the Georgian-Russian conflict, only the right-wing Lithuanian politicians voiced support of Saakashvili action. For example, head of the rightist Union of Fatherland Andrius Kubilius called Lithuanian political herd to express solidarity with Georgia and take “concrete action” in the context of her conflict with Russia.

However, recently already most high-ranking Lithuanian officials one after another made statements of open support of Georgia and implied condemnation of Russia’s conduct. Moreover, it was exactly president of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus who suddenly initiated a “support phone call” to Saakashvili from Lvov where Lithuanian, Polish, and Ukrainian presidents were meeting.

The presidents of the three nations gathered Sep 30 in Lvov to celebrate the 750^th anniversary of the “capital of the Western Ukraine.” Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus, however, got there an idea to call the Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili on behalf of the troika and thereby express support to his confronting Russia in the situation when neither the US nor the main EU countries had voiced any direct support at the top level.

“The West is in no hurry to interfere, and Vilnius…” – says Lithuanian web portal geopolitica.lt. “Moscow’s irritation is caused by the action of the ‘historical triumvirate.’” Presidents of Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine Valdas Adamkus, Lech Kaczynski, and Viktor Yushchenko voiced last Saturday support of the Georgia’s conflicting with Russia." By doing that, a commentator upholds, the three states wanted to demonstrate a common position on the issue and, at the same time, draw attention of the world community to the situation.

Speaking at a press conference, Valdas Adamkus said: “We wanted to show that at least three states in the region are unanimous on the issue. We also wanted to point out that the created tension should be resolved by way of a dialog and attract attention of international organizations. Georgia has a right to defend interests, being guided by her legislation, and to demonstrate by that that she is not a side that wants to create a turmoil in the region.”

As The Guardian commented on the events, such “moral support” is of vital importance to Tbilisi. The geopolitica.lt portal remarks on the phrasing: “For M. Saakashvili it sounds as a call to take even more active effort on the way of entering NATO, which is supposed to become a certain umbrella protecting from Moscow’s expansion in the region. A different, although maybe a rhetorical question is, did Vilnius need to ‘pull the lion’s whiskers?’”