VILNIUS - The nation's leaders lashed out at Agriculture Minister Kazimiera Prunskiene for going to Kaliningrad for its 750th anniversary celebration despite the Foreign Ministry's recommendation that public officials not attend the festivities.
The Foreign Ministry and the Presidential Palace have been up in arms over the fact that Russia demonstratively neglected to invite Valdas Adamkus to the high-profile event marking the foundation of the Kaliningrad exclave, which borders Lithuania and Poland. Polish President Aleksandr Kwasniewski was also not invited to the event, which hosted Germany's Gerhard Schroeder and France's Jacques Chirac.
Ignoring colleagues' advice not to attend the ceremony, Prunskiene left for Kaliningrad, saying that Lithuania's historic ties with the region were sufficient basis to attend the ceremonies.
Prior to her departure, Adamkus said the minister's decision was irresponsible. "Lithuania's foreign policy affairs are run by the Foreign Affairs Ministry," he said, adding that Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas should respond to Prunskiene's actions.
Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis said that Prunskiene's move discredited the country's honor. "If the head of the state is not invited, the state isn't either. Nobody can replace the president in representing the state. We, and not Russia, must draw the level of representation, and this cannot be done by the minister of agriculture," he said.
Prunskiene was equally passionate in her reply.
"I regret finding one-sided, narrow-minded and harmful interpretations of Lithuania's foreign politics by some Foreign Ministry officials. And in this case, I cannot take their advice," she said.
The minister added that the Agriculture Ministry and the Kaliningrad region "cooperate in the field of food production and export, which is becoming more active."
This, she argued, should not be terminated only for Russia's failure to invite the country's president to the celebrations.
Even a personal request from the president to reject the invitation could not stop Prunskiene from attending.
Prime Minister Brazauskas was quick to defend the minister.
"I don't think Prunskiene's behavior is malevolent 's I don't believe that. She holds good intentions in this matter. Perhaps she paid less attention to the large-scale politics," he said. "I don't view this issue as a major political matter. So what? She'll go for a visit."
Brazauskas also reminded the public that he had permitted Prunskiene, who heads the Union of Farmers and New Democracy Parties, to attend. "The minister asked me, so I signed, because she had a personal invitation from the governor of the Kaliningrad region."
For Moscow, the celebration boiled down to a major display of its support for the severed region, which has dynamic trade relations with both Lithuania and Poland. When asked why the Polish and Lithuanian leaders had not been invited, Russian President Vladimir Putin's advisor for international affairs, Sergey Prikhodka, answered mysteriously: "This was a celebration of the Russian nation, we invited only friends who spoke the same language."
Some analysts speculated that Adamkus was snubbed for his refusal to attend the 60th anniversary celebrations of the defeat of Nazi Germany in Moscow, though this does not explain why Kwasniewski, who was in Moscow on May 9, was also given the cold shoulder.
Other reasons for the Kremlin's dissatisfaction with Lithuania could include its request for compensation for communist-era losses and damages and support of regime change in Belarus.
It is also possible that the Kremlin wanted to use the anniversary celebrations in Kaliningrad 's formerly Konigsberg, the capital of East Prussia- was founded in 1255 by the Teutonic knights as part of their northern crusade against the Baltic tribes 's as part of a larger platform to win concessions from European Union leaders.
Opposition MPs used Prunskiene's decision to berate the government, while the media recently began referring to Russian Duchess Prunskiene, a phrase coined by Aleksy I, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, during the agriculture minister's visit to St. Petersburg in June.
Conservatives (Homeland Union) accused the minister of pursuing pro-Russian foreign policy, which could threaten Lithuania's pro-Euro-Atlantic mindset.
"Efforts to disguise the visit under agricultural affairs are just a ploy for naive rural people who believe that Russia's market may be a panacea for all their problems. A dangerous activity is disguised with speculations about rural affairs 's it is attempted to pursue an alternative foreign policy, to break political party agreements, and destroy our Euro-Atlantic attitude toward politics," conservative Rasa Jukneviciene was quoted by the Baltic News Service as saying.
Still, it was the criticism from Prunskiene's coalition allies that hurt the most. As Valionis, a member of the Social Liberals (New Union), said, "I believe that Mrs. Prunskiene, who has been the prime minister of the reborn Lithuania, must be perfectly aware of the category of state honor and self-respect," he told a press briefing on July 1.
"When invited by a governor or lower-ranking individuals, we are rushing regardless of even the president's decisions, we are degrading our state to a province. That is one thing the Foreign Ministry will never agree to," the foreign minister said.
