Russian environmental specialists claimed that Lithuania was violating the Baltic Sea Environmental Protection Convention, an accusation that Vilnius rejected as ungrounded. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources said that a joint commission of Russian and Lithuanian experts had established violations at two oil terminals in Lithuania. "A group of experts who explored oil and gas transportation devices in Lithuania found that the Klaipeda seaport and Klaipedos Nafta oil terminal does not accept waste from tankers or takes a special fee for it," the Russian Ministry said, adding that such a practice violates the convention and could cause tanker crews to spill ballast waters into the sea before entry into the terminal.
President Valdas Adamkus said that Lithuanians sympathize with Georgians in the ordeal that has befallen them after gas supplies from Russia were disrupted. "We want to believe that a solution to this critical situation will be discovered as soon as possible," presidential adviser Edminas Bagdonas told the Baltic News Service. In Adamkus' opinion, the incidents in Georgia have once again demonstrated the problems that may arise when a country's entire energy system depends on a single source of energy resources. At the same time, Adamkus added that, if need be, Lithuania was prepared to lend humanitarian assistance to Georgia.
Democratic changes in Lithuania were among the most successful in the entire region of Eastern Europe, says former Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program to Lithuania Cihan Sultanoglu. Speaking at a press conference held to review the 13 years of UNDP activity in the Baltic state, Sultanoglu said that looking at the entire region, it had to be admitted that Lithuania had attained the objective of democratic transition quite well and that it was probably the most successful country in the region. The UNDP believed, she added, that Lithuania's experience would be very important for other countries in the region.
