Back in May 1990, Marshal Yazov, then the Minister of Defense of the USSR, fired me from an emergency service in the SA. The demobilized sergeant couldn’t even think that after just six months, such a nightmare would happen in Vilnius.

The dual power in this still Soviet Baltic republic led to street clashes. Moscow gave the order to send troops to restore order. Sacred victims, shot by snipers from the roofs of neighboring houses, were recorded for the Defense Ministry, although, as it turned out later, police officers subordinate to the separatists shot at people.

It was they who were armed with the old Mosin rifles, which they had inherited from a captured armory. But, of course, at the time of the tragedy it was not clear to anyone, and the shed blood ritually strengthened the determination of Lithuania’s exit from the USSR. After 22 years - in 2014 - this “focus” will be applied again on the Maidan in Kiev. Remember the "heavenly hundred"?

In Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania (a member of the European Union), the USSR Marshal Yazov and more than 60 citizens of the Russian Federation, Belarus and Ukraine, who participated in those difficult and tragic events of 1991, were tried in absentia. This is a judgment seat, otherwise it was not to call the event a propaganda plan, in the presence of journalists, but representatives of the embassies of the countries of the accused citizens were not allowed. Like, little space in the hall.

Two people actually sat in the dock - Russian citizens: a veteran of the armed forces, reserve colonel Yuri Mel, who was unexpectedly arrested during a business trip in March 2014 (and has been under arrest in Vilnius prison all these five years); the second is also a citizen of the Russian Federation, a former military man, and today a resident of Vilnius Gennady Ivanov. The rest were convicted in absentia.

The Dalia Komsomol (Dalia Grybauskaite, President of Lithuania. - A.M. ) awkwardly hurried to call the event “a confrontation with the truth and the day of historical justice.” In Soviet times, Dahl actively cooperated with state security agencies in savory matters in relations with foreign tourists and other foreign public. She is occasionally reminded in the media.

As for the legal side of this show, then, of course, the prosecution of participants in the January 1991 events from the point of view of international law and the then applicable law is illegal. This is stated in the statement adopted by the State Duma, where this court is called "punitive justice." Last summer, the IC of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case last summer about the “illegal prosecution of participants in the January 1991 events in Lithuania”.

It seems that Russophobia, which has become the main motive in the domestic and foreign policy of the Baltic countries, requires constant updating and emotional nourishment in the heads of the citizens of the Baltic states.

Apparently, for this, the society is actively reminded of the bloody events of 1991 (in its own interpretation, of course), for weightiness, as if fixing its version by the court. Again, in the anti-Russian discourse, having reported a successful provocation, you can again beg for some money. These illusions continue to feed in the Baltics. So such provocations should be expected again.

It is important from this benefit performance of Lithuanian propaganda to rescue our citizens who are physically sentenced to four years and seven years in prison. Former Soviet military servicemen, and today, Russian citizens should receive state protection and return home in the shortest possible time.

The chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, has already said that the Russian side will provide all the necessary support to our citizens Yuri Mel and Gennady Ivanov, who were unlawfully convicted in Vilnius. I would like to believe that our guys will soon be home.

“The sentence to the former USSR Minister of Defense Dmitry Yazov and other participants in those events has nothing to do with real justice. All that we see in the Vilnius District Court is a political trial and a new attempt to falsify history. The whole process is sustained in the spirit of the Russophobic hysteria of the Lithuanian authorities, ”the head of the international committee stressed.

Indeed, as for Marshal Yazov, a war hero, an outstanding military leader, then, of course, the veteran old man is unpleasant that for honestly fulfilling his order and duty, his name is being rinsed in absent fascist newspapers today.

On the other hand, trying to update the events of January 1991 for their propaganda purposes, the Lithuanian authorities put the question, not the point. Who is responsible for the death of 14 demonstrators on Vilnius Square on January 13, 1991? An honest answer to this question can lead to a complete breakdown of the paradigm of their worldview.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.