Lithuanian president trying to deny participation in corruption schemes

Dalia Grybauskaitė believes that the public was wrong in understanding the content of her messaging with the former leader of the Liberal Movement Eligijus Masiulis, Sputnik Latvia reports. The president insists that she gave no secret promises and supported no notorious persons.

In an interview to Žinių radijas, Grybauskaitė stressed that she gave no promises of any kind of giving cover to any organizations. She said she was sorry that someone was considering or interpreting her communication with Masiulis, who is now under investigation in allegations of bribery, as protection or coverage.

“I have always said that there should be no immunity. As soon as I took the office, the justice was informed that if any suspicions arise that someone is breaching the law, there must be no exceptions,” she commented on the publication of the scandalous communications. Besides, Grybauskaitė called it a “textbook example” when olirgachy sides with politics and has its own mass media to lobby their personal interests. She said that the MG Baltic concern is such an example; its representatives were giving bribes to Masiulis for promoting certain people.

Earlier, Lietuvos rytas published electronic communications of Grybauskaitė with Eligijus Masiulis in 2014-16. For instance, it follows from the published messages that Grybauskaitė wrote to Masiulis that LNK TV channel reporter Tomas Dapkus “was saying nonsense” on the candidate propose by her to the post of the prosecutor general, Evaldas Pašilis. The president suggested that Masiulis “sends her message” to the head of MG Baltic Darius Mockus to make him “restrain his beagle.” Chair of the parliamentary committee for law and order Agnė Širinskienė (Farmers and Greens Union) noted that next day after Grybauskaite told Masiulis to restrain his beagle, the Special Investigations Service fixed a talk of Masiulis with Raimondas Kurlianskis (vice president of the MG Baltic concern) where not only the issue of financing the Liberal Movement was settled, but the message was conferred using the same wording that was used in the message from Grybauskaite.

Talking to Žinių radijas, Grybauskaite explained that in the current situation the LNK channel can be revoked its license, but she found no grounds for it. “The relations between politicians and business have been developing in a complicated and often non-transparent way. Most often, business was searching profit for itself only, and in the certain case of MG Baltic even tried to seize the state. Politics of secret agreements breaks our whole political system, and it is necessary to fix it immediately. The responsibility here is on all political parties,” the president stressed.

BaltNews.lt writes that, usually chary on interviews, now Grybauskaite is active in the press as never before. Her political opponents believe that Grybauskaite wants to get off scot-free of a corruption scandal, so she is trying to divert the public attention from her personality. On May 15, Ramūnas Karbauskis who leads the ruling Farmers and Greens Union party said speaking at the parliament that participation of the president in the corruption schemes was confirmed by documents and cited the communication of Grybauskaite with Masiulis. “And now, Grybauskaite trying to save her reputation starts to present unfounded accusations against MPs, hinting that they ‘are doing business’ right at their offices,” Karbauskis said.

Zigmas Vaišvila, a prominent politician, one of the signatories of the Independence Act in 1990, suggested that Grybauskaite should leave her post. Vaišvila believes that she cannot be the moral leader of the nation and guarantor of the constitution on the background of the high-profile corruption scandals involving the president. Former MP Audrius Nakas expressed the same idea.