Baltic States – CIS, EU – CIS, Lithuania

Now a group of MPs, including Arunas Gumuliauskas, representing the ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union, Emanuelis Zingeris of the opposition conservative Homeland Union and Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, the leader of the opposition Liberal Movement, have proposed adopting a new document.

“This resolution is way broader,” Gumuliauskas told. 

“It addresses many concerns, including occupation, the course of the war, the problems of war crimes,” the MP said.

The resolution put forward by Linkevicius was more focused on foreign policy whereas the new draft was more targeted on Lithuania’s public.

“This resolution is more comprehensive, more substantive… it reflects a much fuller assessment of the historical picture of that period,” Gumuliauskas explained.

The newly-registered draft resolution identifies the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols, which Nazi-Germany and the Soviet Union signed to divide Central and Eastern Europe on the eve of WWII, as one of the main causes of the war.

“At the same time, the loss of sovereignty of those countries was one of the premises of the horrible Holocaust tragedy,” the draft says.

The document emphasizes that, instead of freedom, the end of WWII brought “five decades of totalitarian oppression, Soviet occupation, genocide, war crimes and brutal crimes against humanity” to Central and Eastern European countries.

The resolution points out that Russia now seeks to accuse Central and Eastern European countries of co-responsibility for unleashing the WWII.

The draft calls to urge the European Parliament, the legislatures of Central and Eastern European countries and international community to resist Russia’s ongoing historical revisionism and the dissemination of disinformation.

According to the document, Russia “pursues historical revisionism and disseminates disinformation denying the role of the Soviet Union as one of the main instigators of WWII and seeking to shift the blame onto the victims of aggression and justify the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols”.

“The Seimas calls on regional and global academic community, civil society to continue investigating crimes against humanity committed by totalitarian regimes, to study historical facts and disseminate the truth in order to prevent such tragedies from ever happening again”, the draft says.

On Apr. 7, the Seimas of Lithuania adopted a resolution condemning Russia’s ongoing historical revisionism and the dissemination of disinformation and calling on the European Parliament and Central European policymakers to join forces in resisting such practice.

The document also expressed support to Poland, which Russia had accused of co-responsibility for unleashing the WWII.

A respective resolution was passed unanimously with 97 votes in favor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated several times recently that Poland is responsible for the WWII, and has justified the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, stating that Russia had no choice but to sign it.

On Aug. 23, 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union signed the pact and its secret protocols and divided the Baltic states and Poland into spheres of influence on the eve of WWII. Soon afterwards, the war broke out and Lithuania and Poland were occupied.