VILNIUS 's The American Lithuanian Council has urged President Valdas Adamkus not to go to Moscow to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.
"This is going to be a deliberately staged propaganda show. We all know too well what this 'liberation' meant and brought for the Baltic nations. Participation at top-level in an event like that would clash with the tragedy Lithuania has experienced and its historical memory," says the council, which unites 17 organizations, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The council said that Russia, as the successor of the Soviet Union's state obligations, must recognize the fact of occupation and apologize and pay damages for the Baltic states.
In mid-February, the Lithuanian World Community also urged the president not to go to Moscow.
Adamkus has so far not disclosed his resolution on going or not going to the Moscow festivities and is expected to do so at the end of March.
The presidents of the Baltic states received Russian President Vladimir Putin's invitations to the Moscow festivities last year. So far, only Latvia's Vaira Vike-Freiberga has said she would go.
