In Lithuania, a scandal is gaining momentum related to the leak of documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic.

The night before, the Lithuanian media reported that an unknown person offered to sell the stolen data of the republic’s foreign ministry at one of the English-language forums.

“We are talking about PST files of the minister, deputies, heads of key departments, ambassadors in the G7 and NATO countries, various representatives in international organizations,” the platform user clarified in his announcement, which was found by the journalists of the RuBaltic.ru portal.

According to the "seller", he has secret documents, including information about "negotiations behind closed doors" with the presidents of the United States and other countries, "intrigues" against Russia, Germany and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, information "about US assistance, directed against Germany and France, and Lithuania's role in this dirty game ”, information about“ preparing for a war with Belarus ”,“ instructions from the United States against China ”and“ much more ”.

The unknown also said that whoever receives "this archive" and can use it correctly, may "become the head of the war within Europe."

“This archive is one hundred percent like a nuclear bomb and, by the way, the correspondence also contains a lot of secret data.

Fools from the Foreign Ministry in their correspondence revealed all the secrets that the United States has against Europe, ”wrote the unknown.

He also noted that he has more than 1.6 million letters in 102 PST files and, as confirmation of his words, published a number of documents allegedly stolen from the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry.

Details of what happened

Let us remind you that on August 11, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania announced an attempt of an information-cybernetic attack on the department, as well as the beginning of an investigation into this incident.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic also drew attention to the recent intensification of this kind of cyber attacks aimed at discrediting the Lithuanian state and its policies.

The next day, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry clarified that they considered the incident as an information attack by unfriendly countries.

In an interview with the Delfi portal, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda confirmed the leak of classified information, saying that it "could cause great damage, primarily in relation to the allies" of Vilnius.

“Investigation is underway, no doubt, we will assess the damage that this cyber attack caused.

However, there are certain signs that indicate that some information has been leaked.

And this information is classified as "secret", - stressed Nauseda, adding that he could not disclose details yet.

  • The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania

  • © Wikimedia commons

Later, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anushauskas said on his Facebook page that the country's Foreign Ministry data was stolen in November 2020.

In addition, on August 11, 2021, the hackers tried to carry out the attack again, but to no avail.

At the same time, the Minister of Defense expressed confidence in Russia's involvement in these computer hacks. 

“Those groups of programmers who operate in our region carry out cyberattacks, hack databases, they are usually connected with the Russian special services,” he said.

"Lithuania framed the EU"

According to Nikolai Mezhevich, chief researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, knowing that Lithuania does not have a serious system of protection against cyber attacks, the attackers could well take advantage of this.

“It cannot be said that the document protection regime in the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry is at a high level.

And the hackers, who are aware of this, probably wanted to cash in on flaws in the department's security system by stealing data.

And the fact that now the documents of the ministry can be easily bought on the Internet cannot be ruled out, ”the expert said in a conversation with RT.

At the same time, Nikolai Mezhevich stressed that the information of an anonymous source on the English-speaking forum about the role of Lithuania in anti-Russian, anti-Belarusian and other provocations "is very similar to the truth."

“Despite the fact that the content of the stolen documents is still in question, as well as the reliability of the data provided by an anonymous user of the English-language forum, there is no doubt that Vilnius tried to oppose Russia and Belarus, as well as other countries.

This becomes clear both from the official position of Lithuania and from the actions that it is taking within the country and in the international arena.

The likelihood that the merged data is reliable is very high.

This, in particular, is indicated by the restrained reaction of Vilnius regarding the story with the leak, ”the analyst said.

According to Mezhevich, it is no coincidence that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania confirmed the cyberattack on the department, and the President of the country confirmed the fact of a data leak.

According to the expert, they are simply trying to “play it safe”.

“If now something else emerges in the public domain, and this is likely to happen in the near future, Brussels will immediately start looking for those responsible and those who hush up what happened.

In any case, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry and the head of state himself are now under attack, but in this situation they want to absolve themselves of at least part of the blame, including by declaring the role of unfriendly countries in the incident, ”the expert explained.

According to Mezhevich, Lithuania “actually set up the EU” by not properly protecting the data of its foreign ministry.

According to the analyst, the scandal surrounding the theft of documents of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs may well end with the resignation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the republic and other officials.

In turn, Nikita Danyuk, deputy director of the RUDN Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, a member of the Public Chamber of Russia, said that the stolen documents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic could indeed be posted on the Internet.

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  • © NICOLAS ASFOURI

“You can probably actually buy them.

When there are more details and the world learns more about the inner workings of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry ... a huge diplomatic scandal will erupt.

And this scandal may turn into not only sanctions for Lithuania, but also a revision of the attitude towards the country on the part of Brussels and the international community as a whole.

In addition, this incident will hit the entire European diplomacy very hard, ”Danyuk said in an interview with RT.

At the same time, the European Union, according to Mezhevich, found itself in an extremely disadvantageous position due to the very fact of data leakage from the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The EU is already not distinguished by the coordination and coherence of its member states, and this leakage incident further aggravates the state of affairs and harms the image not only of Lithuania, but of the entire association.

However, the European Union knows how to professionally sweep garbage under the carpet, there are experienced people sitting there.

It is quite possible that Brussels will make sure that everyone will soon forget about the scandal and stop mentioning it, ”the analyst emphasized.

In turn, Nikita Danyuk believes that the story with the leakage of data from the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry shows that the EU's stake on Lithuania in the context of implementing a foreign policy based on an anti-Russian consensus is absolutely wrong.

“The EU is now extremely unprofitable for the world to learn about the biased plans of unification in relation to its main opponents, primarily in the person of Russia and Belarus. Therefore, Brussels will do everything possible to neutralize the consequences of the leak, ”the expert concluded.