VILNIUS - The Lithuanian non-governmental organization Youth for Georgia held a protest demonstration on August 8, in front of the Russian embassy in Vilnius, to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the five-day Russian-Georgian war. Some 80, mostly young protesters took part. They condemned continuing Russian occupation of some 20 percent of Georgia's territory, where the states of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, both recognized only by Moscow were established as the result of the war.
The English-language posters of the demonstrators read as follows: "Stop the war in Georgia!," "We respect Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity!," "Russia get out of Georgian territories!," and "Putin's bastards go home!" The Russian-language poster stated, "Russian citizen, be a patriot of your own country!" The words 'your own' were underlined on that poster.
Loudspeakers at the demonstration were playing the song 'We Don't Wanna Put In,' by Georgian disco group Stephane & 3G. It was to have been the Georgian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow in May, 2009. However, it was banned from taking part in the contest. The European Broadcasting Union ruled that the song lyrics do not comply with the contest's rules because the song was seen to contain political reference to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The words 'put in' are sung with accented pronunciation, as 'poot een,' which is how the Russian prime minister's name is pronounced.
According to demonstrators, although there are controversial international opinions regarding the initiator of the first shootings in that conflict, Georgia was acting on its own territory.
On August 7, Georgian ambassador to Lithuania, George Kerdikoshvili, held a press conference to mark the anniversary. He denied the accusations that Georgia initiated the war with Russia.
"It would be the same as if Lichtenstein would announce a war on Turkey," Kerdikoshvili said. He added that "Georgia will never agree with a loss of its territories."
Kerdikoshvili expressed hope that "the Abkhazians, the Ossetians and the Georgians will live peacefully in the state of Georgia, with a help of the international community." He also thanked Lithuania for supporting Georgia during the war.
"The Lithuanians were the first who sent their donors' blood to Georgia's medics. Now Lithuanian and Georgian blood is mixed in some people as a result of it. You can imagine what kind of a freedom loving person should be someone who has such a mix of blood," Kerdikoshvili said.
On August 7, in Georgia's capital Tbilisi, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili awarded Petras Vaitiekunas, former Lithuanian foreign minister in the then center-left government, with the St. George's Order. The first person who was awarded with this order, several years ago, was U.S. President George W. Bush. Vaitiekunas was the first high-ranking foreign official who visited Georgia during the war last year and he was active in rallying support for Georgia in the West.
Former Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus was also active during the Russian-Georgian war. He as well as Polish President Lech Kaczynski, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and then Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis went to Tbilisi to show support for the country after the war broke out.
"We can't allow a second Munich, when the international community climbed down [away from] Hitler. That led to World War II, to a huge tragedy and millions of victims," Adamkus said during a collective press conference of the presidents in Tbilisi, which was shown live on CNN.
He was referring to the 1938 Munich conference, when Western nations tried to ward off war by accepting Adolf Hitler's demands that Nazi Germany be awarded Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland region, on the grounds that its population consisted mostly of German-speakers. Moscow has argued that its assault on Georgia was in part meant to protect Russian citizens there. Adamkus then delivered the harshest criticism among all the foreign officials visiting Tbilisi towards Moscow.
On the evening of August 8, Lithuanian public TV changed its prime time schedule to broadcast the interview with Saakashvili, who praised Lithuania's solidarity with Georgia.
"I do not trust any other country as much as I trust Lithuania," Saakashvili said.
However, there is some suspicion that new Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite will be slightly less enthusiastic in helping former Soviet countries in confronting increased pressure from Russia. Though after her election she promised to continue Adamkus' foreign policies, political observers remember how she spoke just several months ago, when she still was a European commissioner for financial programming and budgeting. Then, Grybauskaite once remarked that Lithuania was spending too much time 'befriending impoverished folk,' maybe referring to Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, and too little time to make sure the rich and influential countries inside the European Union are Lithuania's friends.
