VILNIUS - Russian television provoked another scandal this week by airing a program that accused Lithuania of collaboration with international terrorists and urged Russians to boycott products from the Baltic state.
The program caused massive outrage in Lithuania, eliciting strong statements from nearly all the country's leaders.
"Lithuanian authorities are fond of the bandits who shot our children in the back in Beslan. Since Lithuanians are citizens of Europe now, they can't take a gun and join the Forest Brothers to shoot the hated Russian occupants as they did years ago. Now they take advantage of the vicarious hands of Shamil Basayev," the TV channel TVCentr announced.
Andrei Dabrov, host of the program "The Main Topic," claimed that Lithuanian-Russian relations had deteriorated due to the terrorist attack in Beslan.
Referring to the pro-Chechen Web site previously based in Lithuania but now closed, Dabrov said, "It's natural that, after the Beslan tragedy, we experienced pain due to the existence of such information outlets."
Dabrov even went so far as to claim that the site reflected the "personal opinion of [President] Valdas Adamkus."
"He thinks that the existence of the Internet site urging the murder of Russians does not contradict Lithuanian laws. It would be logical to guess that President Adamkus simply wants to play on our nerves," said Dabrov.
Finally, the Russian tele-journalist called for a boycott of Lithuanian goods.
"Our television program proposes that Russian society implements time tested tactics 's the boycott of Lithuanian goods and companies," said the Russian journalist. "Everything is very simple since the money that we pay for Lithuanian goods and services later on could support the murderers of our children. As long as the threat exists, there is no point in financing the friends of Shamil Basayev. Everybody who is not with us is against us."
It remains unclear when exactly the program aired. Lithuanian officials say it came after the site 's www.kavkazcenter.com - was closed and Russian officials claim the opposite.
On Sep. 17 the State Security Department ordered that the server be shut down after a bulletin appeared on the site offering to pay $20 million for help in capturing Russian President Vladimir Putin. The offer earned a strong rebuke from Moscow.
Adamkus, returning from a trip to the United States, called the Russian media campaign "an artificially-caused scandal" attempting to strain bilateral relations between the two countries, which have been uneasy due to a series of diplomatic expulsions and differences over how transit to the Kaliningrad exclave should be arranged.
"I think it is unfair, as they were well aware that Lithuania reacted to their raised problem, that we, as a state, allegedly tolerated those actions," Adamkus said of the criticism.
Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis felt compelled to mention the matter to his Russian colleague, Sergei Lavrov, in New York on Sept. 23. "Such ungrounded accusations are totally unacceptable and do not contribute to constructive cooperation, including counter-terrorism efforts," Valionis was quoting as telling Lavrov.
Upon returning to Lithuania, the minister said that the country should not take radical measures in reacting to the hostile statements in the Russian media. "I believe that we need a calm and normal reaction 's the last thing we need is hasty actions," he said.
But fallout from the program was felt immediately. MP Kestutis Glaveckas said that the economic boycott had already started, as he had received a few complaints form entrepreneurs who had run into pressure in Russia. Businessmen who had been exporting to Russia for years said that not once had they ever encountered such a situation.
State Security Department chief Arvydas Pocius expressed the opinion that the attack was orchestrated, since there are certain powerful individuals in Russia not interested in good relations with Lithuania.
"I strongly doubt that the media attack against Lithuania is spontaneous. We see such phenomena 's when it is done purposefully 's quite often. There are persons in other states who are not interested in good neighbourly relations and good interstate relations," Pocius said.
MP Vytautas Landsbergis, an outspoken critic of Russia, rejected media accusations that Lithuania had supported terrorists behind the Beslan killings.
"We categorically do not support those who shoot running children and adults in the back. We do not support those who kidnap and kill children in Iraq, Chechnya and elsewhere," Landsbergis said in a press release.
The issue so dominated the Lithuanian press that even guests were forced to comment. Robert Nurick, a U.S. political scientist and head of the Moscow Carnegie Center that arrived in Vilnius for a conference, was quoted by the Baltic News Service as saying that the accusations levelled against Lithuania were "obviously ridiculous."
"It does reflect a very bad political mood in Moscow, which to some extent has been encouraged by statements coming from the Russian government suggesting that there are forces in the West that would like to see Russia weaker," Nurick said.
The political scientist is not inclined to take the Russian media attacks against Lithuania seriously, as those accusations, in his words, do not reflect Russia's official policy.
