Maldeikis, who appeared on the Lietuvos rytas TV show 24/7, and Agnė Širinskienė, a member of the Seimas, assessed the possible closure of the border with Belarus and the election tricks of politicians.
Problems with smuggling
At the beginning of August, President Gitanas Nausėda, who met with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in the Suwałki region, announced that around 4,000 people may already be deployed in Belarus. „Some of them have reportedly taken up positions in the Grodno region, which, according to the President, is convenient for possible provocations.
However, according to the Head of State, a possible protective measure – complete closure of the border with Belarus – would be only a last resort. Instead, Lithuania plans to close two of its six border checkpoints, Šumskas and Tverečius, as of Tuesday.
During the programme, MEP Maldeikis stressed that if the Belarusian issue was to be resolved by closing the border, then this step should be taken together with Latvia and Poland.
„To have an effect, we need to do it together, not one country taking some more drastic steps and the others not doing so, because then our regional coordination would look rather frivolous“, said Mr Maldeikis.
According to the MEP, the two border crossings with Belarus, which have already been closed, are more of a technical issue of border control.
„To make it easier to control the flows, which are increasing because Poland is taking certain actions. They have elections coming up, they need a strong message, and they are doing it. And we have increasing flows, so it would be much easier to manage logistically.
One of the most interesting things for me, when I came into politics was to see how unmanageable the situation on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border really is and how much it has been neglected for years – 20% of the cigarettes smoked in Lithuania come from Belarusian smuggling, in Lithuania alone. This number is now decreasing, and action has been taken, but the system that has been set up over a decade is in a state of disrepair,“ the conservative pointed out.
At the same time, as Maldeikis pointed out, closing the entire border is already a much more complicated issue, both for political reasons (as Latvia often has its own separate position on various issues) and for economic reasons.
Lack of explanation
For her part, Agnė Širinskienė, a member of the Mixed Group of MPs, noted during the programme the „interesting and at the same time frightening“ communication of the country's leaders with regard to the Wagner threat, which, according to the politician, worries Lithuanians living in the vicinity of the closure sites.
„On the one hand, the Head of State has been talking for some time now about the increased threats posed by the presence of the Wagner group in Belarus, while the Minister of National Defence has been denying this for a very long time, trying to downplay the threat in every possible way.
I myself am communicating more with people at the moment, in the summer, and the reactions to these communications are indescribable because people do not know what to believe. And if they live in a border region, they don't get enough explanation as to why certain points are chosen, and they are immediately led to believe that there might be a heightened threat in that area,“ said Ms Širinskienė.
„I would very much like to see, first of all, uniform communication from the government, although we are losing hope that we will have it, and, on the other hand, an explanation to the people“, she added.
She urged them to stop fearmongering
At the same time, Maldeikis is convinced that politicians are constantly talking about Wagner's threats to Lithuania for their own personal gain.
„I am very sorry that the Wagner group is suddenly being used as a PR (public relations) tool. It is being used by Lukashenko internally. The Polish government is using it because there are elections, and they are playing that card“, said Maldeikis.
The conservative believes Lithuanian President Nausėda is doing the same thing by constantly emphasising the Wagner threat.
„Unfortunately, I think that the card is being played – it is not necessary to play the card the way it is being played. The President has already raised his rating. He really enjoyed the NATO summit – he sat at the same table, shook hands, kissed with Mr Zelensky, and as a result, he felt that he was playing this security card.
But this card should not be played at the expense of people's emotions. Lithuania is a NATO member, and we control the Wagner situation.
If they approach Lithuania's border – because we are talking about big logistics – believe me, Lithuania is ready for such scenarios,“ said Maldeikis.