Baltic States – CIS, Energy, Legislation, Lithuania, Transport

Arturas Zuokas.

He invited by the head of Astravets district Adam Kavalko to participate in a conference on nuclear power engineering issues, writes LETA/ELTA.

However, the Belarusian Ambassador to Lithuania Vladimir Drazhin started to persuade him not to go to Astravets. The diplomat assured upon oath that the conference would be organized in cooperation with the Energy Ministry of Belarus in Astravets in summer, and that the mayor would be certainly invited there. However, no conference was held in Astravets.

Finally, in November the mayor intended to go to Belarus, to the near-border village of Hervyaty, invited there by a local Lithuanian community.

But the Belarusian Embassy denied a Belarusian business visa for Arturas Zuokas. He was told that he needed an invitation from official authorities. Eventually, Zuokas applied for a tourist visa, but he has not even received an answer from the embassy.