„I think there are a lot of things to take into account. First of all, trust in the state. The state has made a certain promise to people who, 35 years ago, came forward and honestly admitted what they had done during the Soviet period. The state made a promise. You could either count on it or not believe in the state's promises in general. That is one thing. Second, how much of a danger do these people pose or do not pose?“ Jansonas told Žinių Radijas on Tuesday.
„Because just for curiosity to find out who was a snitch – fine, we are all curious, we would all like to know. But in this case, we are talking about the state. And these people – most of them, or the vast majority– are of retirement age and even older. Most of them are completely absent from the life of the state. And if there are any, it is the relevant services because they have confessed everything, know everything, and can see everything. They are not a danger to the state. So, if we want to satisfy our curiosity by risking our trust in the state, we can consider it, but there are two very different arguments here,“ he noted.
Jansonas noted that the amendments to the law prepared by Nemuno Aušra could be interpreted as a punishment for former KGB collaborators who confessed.
„If we are punishing those people, (...) we are punishing those who have honestly come forward and confessed. We are only talking about those we know. The ones we don't know, the ones who haven't confessed, who might be sleeper agents – we don't talk about them because we don't know them. It's a bit strange“, he said.
However, Nausėda's advisor also mentioned that one of the initiators of these legislative changes, Remigijus Žemaitaitis, the Chairman of Nemuno Aušra, had a different view on the issue 10 years ago.
As reported in 2015, when the Seimas extended the period of classification of the lists of KGB collaborators for 75 years, Žemaitaitis voted in favour.
„But, of course, if people have an epiphany if 10 years ago, they thought one way and today they suddenly have a different perception, and 10 years ago those KGB collaborators who were at least younger and could pose some danger to Lithuania, are now 10 years older... But, again, a person born in 1982 thought one way in 2015, and in 2025, when he is mature, he thinks differently. It is quite natural. They will talk about it in the Chamber of Deputies,“ the adviser concluded.
As previously reported, the Nemuno Aušra group in the Seimas has prepared amendments to the law proposing declassifying the lists of KGB collaborators. If the Parliament approves the proposals, only those persons who are not currently politicians and do not hold any civil servant or official positions will remain classified.
In their explanatory memorandum, the project initiators point out that information about people who have admitted to having once secretly collaborated with the former USSR special services is often manipulated in the public domain. According to the politicians, such material is presented without supporting documents and often damages a person's reputation, honour, and dignity. Therefore, they argue that declassifying the lists of those who collaborated with the KGB would leave no room for speculation.
Currently, the law provides that confessed KGB collaborators are entered into the register, but their data is classified and stored for 75 years.
If the Seimas approves the initiative, the list of KGB collaborators and their data will be declassified on 1 January next year.
In 2015, the Seimas decided that data on confessed former KGB collaborators would be classified for 75 years. Until then, the law stipulated that the data of such persons would be classified until 2015, and Parliament decided to extend this period when the deadline expired.