Lietuva in brief - 2011-12-22

  • 2011-12-22

Lithuanian residents’ trust in banks has considerably decreased after the Snoras bank bankruptcy in November. Over the month, the proportion of trust in banks has decreased by half - from 39 to 19.8 percent. The number of residents who do not trust banks has increased from 30.9 to 54.5 percent. The results of a poll, carried out by market and opinion research center Vilmorus in early December were reported by Lietuvos Rytas. The results of the poll show that 0.3 percent of the questioned people “completely trust banks,” 19.5 percent said they “trust” banks; 27.5 percent answered “neither do, nor do not;” 42.6 percent said “do not trust” and 11.9 percent answered “do not trust at all.” The poll also revealed that only 7.6 percent trust the Lithuanian government and 60.7 percent do not trust it. The institutions trusted even less than the government are the parliament and parties.

Vilnius Mayor Arturas Zuokas has been denied a Belarusian visa after his meeting with the Belarusian opposition members, the Charter97 Press Center reports. This spring Zuokas planned a visit to Astravets, where a Belarusian nuclear power station is being constructed. He was invited by the head of Astravets district Adam Kavalko to participate in a conference on nuclear power engineering issues. However, the Belarusian Ambassador to Lithuania Vladimir Drazhin started to persuade him not to go. The diplomat assured him that the conference would be organized in cooperation with the Energy Ministry of Belarus in Astravets in the summer, and that the mayor would be certainly invited then. However, no conference was held in Astravets. Finally, in November the mayor intended to go to Belarus, to the near-border village of Hervyaty, invited there by a local Lithuanian community. But the Belarusian Embassy denied a Belarusian business visa for Zuokas. He was told that he needed an invitation from official authorities. Eventually, Zuokas applied for a tourist visa, but he has not even received an answer from the embassy.