According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), after the information appeared in the public space on Tuesday, Russian officials officially confirmed that citizens of Lithuania and other foreign countries responsible for the demolition of monuments to Soviet soldiers are included in Russia’s wanted list.
The ministry emphasized that Russia’s decisions contradict universally recognized norms of international law, indicate attempts to falsify the past, and show disrespect for Lithuania’s historical memory.
The MFA demanded an immediate cessation of the persecution of Lithuanian citizens.
The Prime Minister of Estonia, K. Kallas, was also declared «wanted» on Tuesday. The Russian opposition portal «Meduza» also reported on Tuesday that the Minister of Culture of Lithuania is included in the wanted list.
«Meduza» discovered both politicians by downloading the entire publicly available search database — almost 100,000 search cards — from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs website. The database does not indicate under which article K. Kallas and S. Kairis are wanted.
In addition to K. Kallas and S. Kairis, the database of wanted individuals includes over a hundred Eastern European officials and politicians against whom Russia has initiated criminal cases after the demolition of Soviet monuments in their countries. Among them are two-thirds of the previous convocation’s deputies of the Latvian Saeima, members of the councils of Riga, Klaipeda, and Ukrainian cities of Lutsk and Rivne, the mayor of the Polish city of Wolbórz, and the deputy minister of state assets of Poland.