The Investigative Committee of Russia brought charges against three Lithuanian judges in absentia under part 2 of Article 305 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (making a knowingly unjust verdict, decision or other judicial act).

This is stated on the website of the department.

We are talking about members of the board of the Vilnius Regional Court Ainor Macevičienė, Virginija Pakalnite-Tamosiunaite and Arturas Šumskas.

On March 27, 2019, they delivered “a knowingly unjust verdict against more than 50 Russian citizens, including Yuri Mel and Gennady Ivanov, who were detained in Lithuania”.

“The investigation has taken the necessary measures to organize an international search for the accused,” said Svetlana Petrenko, an official representative of the Investigative Committee.

Earlier, the Investigative Committee opened a case on unlawful criminal prosecution and deliberately unjust verdicts against Russians from among the former law enforcement officers, servicemen of the Soviet army and members of the Communist Party.

"The witnesses saw snipers"

The pretext for the persecution of Russians by the Lithuanian authorities was the dramatic events of January 1991 in Vilnius, where clashes broke out between participants in unauthorized protests and Soviet security forces who were transferred to the city.

The troops were ordered to take control of key facilities in Vilnius.

On the night of January 13, the Alpha group stormed the local television center and held it until the approach of the internal troops.

During the operation, 13 civilians and one special forces soldier were killed, from 500 to 700 people were injured.

In 2014, the General Prosecutor's Office of Lithuania completed a pre-trial investigation into this case.

The department placed full responsibility for the deaths and injuries of people on the leadership of the USSR and the security forces, who allegedly fired at the protesters.

In particular, the Vilnius District Court sentenced in absentia the former USSR Minister of Defense Dmitry Yazov (died on February 25, 2020) and retired KGB colonel, ex-commander of the "A" ("Alpha") group Mikhail Golovatov to 10 and 12 years in prison, respectively.

Yazov was found guilty of creating "an organized group of 160 military and political figures with the aim of returning Lithuania to the USSR."

According to the Lithuanian authorities, for this purpose, the military leader instructed to prepare a list of objects to be seized by the security forces.

Meanwhile, as Moscow repeatedly recalled, as of January 1991, Lithuania was an integral part of the USSR, its independence was recognized only in September 1991.

For this reason, the actions of the law enforcement agencies were lawful and legitimate.

"In the events of January 1991 in Vilnius, Soviet servicemen performed their official duties and acted in accordance with the legislation of the USSR in order to ensure public order," according to the website of the Investigative Committee.

In November 2016, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a statement in which it called the investigation of the events of January 1991 by the Lithuanian authorities “a political process in the worst traditions of“ punitive justice ”.

According to the parliamentarians, Vilnius's approach "contradicts the norms of international law and has a pronounced anti-Russian character."

  • Soviet troops and Lithuanian protesters

  • RIA News

  • © Audrius Ulozyavicius

"The State Duma deputies declare that they will continue to provide the necessary assistance to the citizens of the Russian Federation and citizens of other states persecuted in the so-called case of January 13, including providing their legal and information support," the document of the lower house of parliament said.

In Russia, they strongly disagree with the accusations against the servicemen in the deaths of the protesters.

Participants of the events say that they had only blank cartridges, and fire was fired at the crowd from the roofs of the houses surrounding the TV tower.

The version of the snipers who staged a large-scale provocation at the TV center is confirmed by the statements of Audrius Butkevicius, head of the Lithuanian Territory Protection Department (a security agency not controlled by the USSR authorities) in 1990-1991.

In several media interviews, he said that, on his order, snipers of the Sayudis separatist movement were deployed on the roofs of Vilnius buildings.

It was they, according to Butkevicius, who fired at the demonstrators who had gathered at the TV tower on January 13, 1991.

In 2018, the Latvian newspaper Riga.Rosvesty published an interview with a former Lithuanian political prisoner, Doctor of Historical Sciences Juozas Ermalavicius, who sided with the communists in 1990-1991.

He also confirmed the sniper version.

“The witnesses saw the snipers, but you cannot talk about it in Lithuania, there is a criminal article,” Ermalavičius said.

Commenting on the January events of 1991 in an interview with RT, Nikolai Mezhevich, chief researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted that, from the point of view of the law, Moscow had legitimate powers to “keep” Lithuania within the USSR.

In his opinion, Lithuanian separatists are responsible for the deaths. 

“The troops in Vilnius acted strictly in accordance with the Constitution of the Soviet Union and had the right to use force, but they refrained from violent actions.

If we talk about the death of people, then all traces lead to the movement for the independence of Lithuania and personally to Mr. Vytautas Landsbergis (one of the leaders of the Lithuanian separatists in 1990-1991), ”Mezhevich said.

"An absurd verdict"

Over the years of investigative actions and court proceedings, Lithuania has failed to bring the overwhelming majority of the accused to real responsibility.

Nevertheless, Vilnius still managed to send several citizens of the Russian Federation to jail.

So, in 2014, after leaving the Kaliningrad region in Lithuania, reserve colonel Yuri Mel was detained.

In January 1991, on the orders of the commander, he fired blank charges three times into the air.

No one was hurt by the actions of the serviceman, but the Vilnius court appointed him a seven-year prison term.

  • Yuri Mel, sentenced to 7 years in prison

  • AFP

  • © Petras Malukas

Former head of the Rocket and Artillery Armament Service of the 107th Motorized Rifle Division, Russian citizen Gennady Ivanov living in Lithuania, received four years in prison.

Dalia Grybauskaite, who at that time held the post of President of Lithuania, called the verdict to the Russians "a confrontation with the truth, to find out which took many years, which cost a lot of pain, patience and self-sacrifice."

At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that the court ignored the evidence refuting the involvement of servicemen in the death of civilians.

In addition, as stated by the Foreign Ministry, the Lithuanian authorities violated generally accepted international norms by refusing to admit Russian diplomats and journalists to court sessions.

In a conversation with RT, Vladimir Olenchenko, senior researcher at the Center for European Studies, IMEMO RAS, noted that the Lithuanian authorities grossly distort the historical and legal background of the events of January 1991.

“Lithuanians are trying to transfer their jurisdiction to the Soviet legal space.

In my opinion, the Investigative Committee has adequately responded to what the Lithuanians have done.

The judges who passed the absurd verdict on the Russians should be held accountable, ”Olenchenko said.

Nikolai Mezhevich believes that the Lithuanian authorities are trying to divert public attention from internal problems with the trials of former Soviet servicemen.

According to the expert, for almost 30 years of independence, the republic cannot boast of any achievements.

“The trial over the Russians has a completely understandable ideological meaning - to divert people's attention from the sad picture inside the country.

Membership in the EU and NATO, to which Vilnius was striving with such zeal, had a negative effect.

The Lithuanian authorities lack courage and will to confess their mistakes.

From their point of view, the only way to unite people is to seek and maintain the image of the enemy in the person of Russia, ”Mezhevich summed up.