Lithuania’s decision to boycott Russian Victory Day parade “in line with foreign policy”

Lithuanian political scientist Raimundas Lopata believes Lithuania’s decision to completely boycott the Russian Victory Day military parade on May 9,  is “in line with Lithuania’s declared foreign policy attitudes” towards the Vladimir Putin-led Russian government.

The Victory Day parade is the Russian Federation’s equivalent of V.E. day and takes place in Moscow’s Red Square. The 2015 edition will mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Soviet Union’s war with Nazi Germany.

As a result of Western sanctions on Russia following the MH17 disaster in July 2014, most EU and Western leaders will not attend this year’s Victory Day. Instead, they will send their top-ranking officials residing in the Russian capital.

The United States will send its Moscow-based ambassador John Tefft, while the United Kingdom has yet to take a decision on its representative.

However, on April 27, Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite announced that neither the Lithuanian ambassador to Russia nor other diplomats would be attending the parade.

Grybauskaite claimed that Lithuania understands and appreciates the end of the Second World War, but she explained her rationale by stating: “I do not think that now is the time to watch a military parade during which the flag of occupied Crimea will be carried,” in reference to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in March 2014.

Following the Crimean annexation and Russia’s military intervention in Eastern Ukraine, concerns surrounding the “existing geopolitical situation” in former Soviet territories led to increased fears of a Russian invasion of Lithuania.

At the end of 2014, Russia carried out a military drill in neighbouring Kaliningrad, with 55 naval vessels and 9,000 soldiers.

Lithuanian defences were further bolstered in March 2015, when it was announced by the Lithuanian Chief of Defence, Jonas Vytautas Zukas, that the country planned to reinstate conscription - a decision which will see 3,000 - 3,500 men between the ages of 19 and 26 enlisted each year for periods of nine months, with the first draft taking place later in 2015. 

A further anti-invasion measure was a public information manual introduced in January 2015, entitled ‘How to act in extreme situations or instances of war’.

The Lithuanian defence minister Juozas Olekas claimed the manual was intended to educate the population about what to do in the event of a potential invasion by Russia.

“Keep a sound mind, don't panic and don't lose clear thinking," it explains. "Gunshots just outside your window are not the end of the world."