Lithuania

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — An influx of migrants from Iraq and elsewhere into Lithuania allegedly abetted by neighboring Belarus appears to have stopped, but with a pile of asylum applications to process and local communities angry about nearby migrant camps, the Lithuanian government faces an unfamiliar challenge.

VILNIUS, July 11 (Reuters) - The United States is concerned about the flow of Middle Eastern and African migrants from Belarus into Lithuania, a U.S. diplomat said.

Lithuania began building a 550-km (320-mile) razor wire barrier on its border with Belarus on Friday after accusing Belarusian authorities of flying in migrants from abroad to send illegally into the European Union. read more

VILNIUS, July 9 (Reuters) - Lithuania began building a 550-km (320-mile) razor wire barrier on its border with Belarus on Friday after accusing Belarusian authorities of flying in migrants from abroad to send illegally into the European Union.

The government said the military-style wire coil would cost 4.9 million euros ($5.81 million) to put up and run along most of the frontier, which passes over sparsely populated areas and large stretches of forest and marsh.

VILNIUS, July 8 9NNN-AGENCIES) — Lithuania has announced it will build a barrier on the border with Belarus and deploy troops to prevent migrants from illegally crossing into its territory.

Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said more than 1,000 migrants had been held after crossing along the 679km border since June 1.

Lithuania, an EU member, also accused Belarus of flying in foreign migrants and allowing them to go to the border.

Bilateral ties have been strained since May’s arrest of a Belarusian dissident.

VILNIUS, May 28. /TASS/: The employees of the Belarusian Embassy being expelled from Lithuania have been involved in intelligence activities, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on his Twitter page on Friday.

"Two BY intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover were asked to leave Lithuania," he wrote.

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Viachka Krasulin said he was arrested and brutally beaten all over his body by police in Belarus for attending a rally in August 2020 that challenged the results of an election keeping authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in power.

Krasulin said security forces threatened to sodomize him with a truncheon for joining the protest. After he complained to authorities about the police actions, they opened a criminal case against him — rather than the security forces — and he decided to flee to neighboring Lithuania.

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — A prominent opponent of Belarus’ authoritarian president was arrested Sunday after the airliner in which he was traveling was diverted to the country after a bomb threat, in what the opposition and Western officials denounced as a hijacking operation by the government.

Raman Pratasevich, who faces charges that could bring 15 years in prison, was aboard the Ryanair flight from Athens, Greece, to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius when it changed course to head for Minsk.

VILNIUS, May 23. /TASS/: The Ryanair plane with Roman Protasevich, a former editor-in-chief of the Nexta Telegram channel, which has been recognized as extremist in Belarus, among its passengers was actually compelled to land in Minsk, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Sunday.

"The Belarusian regime’s services compelled the passenger plane flying to Vilnius to land in Minsk," the presidential press service quoted him as saying. He called on NATO and EU allies to immediately react to the threat to international civil aviation from the Belarusian regime.

VILNIUS (Reuters) - Russia would only consider releasing Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny if its leadership was hit with painful personal sanctions, a close ally said ahead of a meeting with European policymakers in Brussels on Sunday.

European foreign ministers are expected to agree on Monday to impose sanctions on allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to the jailing of Navalny.

VILNIUS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania's conservative Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) party has won the second round of parliamentary elections held on Sunday, preliminary results from the Central Electoral Commission showed Monday morning.

The TS-LKD secured 50 seats in the 141-seat unicameral parliament. The ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Unions secured 32 seats and its leader Ramunas Karbauskis admitted his party's defeat and congratulated the conservatives on their victory.