Lithuanian parliament considers denying Kremlin official visa

  • 2007-05-16
  • from wire reports
Chairman of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Justinas Karosas has approached the Foreign Ministry with a request to not to issue the visa for Modest Kolerov, the president of Russia's Board for Inter-regional and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries who intends to visit Lithuania.The Respublika daily has reported that the reasons the parliamentary committee provides for its request are that Kolerov was an avid supporter of the proposal to boycott Estonian goods and therefore cannot be welcome in Lithuania.Another equally important reason that Karosas provides is an incident that took place two years ago, when Conservative leader Andrius Kubilius was, for political reasons, prevented from leaving to Moscow to attend the celebration of the gold wedding of famous musicians Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife Galina Vishnevskaya. That decision was believed to have resulted from the open criticism towards Russia.