„We are in the safest situation. The region has never had defence investment and political will,“ Paluckas told Žinių Radijas on Thursday.
„There is no need to frighten the public; nobody can attack or assault us here in 6 or 12 months, but we need to take defence matters seriously. The role of NATO and the US is vital here; the talks are going on, and Europe has to do its homework“, he stressed.
On Wednesday, a quote from the Minister of National Defence, Social Democrat Dovilė Šakalienė, sent the opposite message to the media.
„Today, geopolitically, we are in the most threatening situation in decades. That situation is going downhill in an orderly fashion. It depends on our preparations now whether we will de facto avoid an attack on our territory, „ Šakalienė said in an interview with the Redakcija podcast.
Experts immediately reacted to this divergence of positions on social networks.
„What is going on in the cabinet? The leading politicians cannot even define the situation similarly when necessary. One of them keeps saying in interviews that we have 5–6% for defence, only the Finance Minister still has to find where to get the money from (the sending of other ministers to the Finance Minister has become a joke in this government), the other explains that nothing is written down.
One is already drawing up a plan to combat disinformation, asking for money, while the other says you can't expect anything here. In any case, there is a serious need for the cabinet to get together for that tea and crumpets,“ wrote political analyst Rima Urbonaitė.
Political analyst Tomas Janeliūnas asked, „In what parallel universe does the Prime Minister live?“.
„We are in the most threatening situation since the withdrawal of the Russian army from Lithuania. And it is necessary to talk about it. This is not „scaremongering“ but adequate preparation. And it is imperative that the public prepares. „The region has never really had both defence investment and political will“ – ok. But this does not mean that „we are in the safest situation“.
It only shows that the realisation of how threatening our situation is finally coming,“ the expert pointed out.
Analyst Marius Laurinavičius reacted sharply to the Prime Minister's statement.
„What is going on here? Danish intelligence has clearly and publicly laid out everything about the threats. I do not doubt that the Kremlin's stinking Prime Minister also has on his desk the assessments of Lithuanian intelligence. After all, the Defence Council has heard a lot recently. And yet, he lives in a parallel reality?
LET'S NOT ASSUME. Let us not pretend that we do not understand for whose benefit Paluckas, with his partner and protégé, the Kremlin-Žemaitaitis, is working hand in hand. Just as let us not pretend that we do not understand, at least for the moment, in whose interests Paluckas was working when, just before the outbreak of the large-scale war in Ukraine, he called for the supply of arms to Ukraine, ostensibly to prevent the war from going on.
Let us not pretend that we do not understand for whose benefit Paluckas is working, not only when he brought to power by the hand a man who tried to justify even a CRIME ANEXY in the Lithuanian Parliament, but also when he is now justifying and defending in every way possible the dubious activities of the Kremlin-Žemaitaitis.
It is all part of the same chain. And let's NOT pretend we don't understand it“, urged Laurinavičius.