Witch hunt in Lithuania. Zmagars may be new targets

I wonder how it will be, “Why are we?” in Lithuanian? Our Baltic neighbors, introducing their discriminatory rules against Russian and Belarusian citizens, are sincerely indignant when they are paid in return in exactly the same coin.

With an interval of an hour and a half, I saw two messages in the news feed this morning. First, about the fact that over the past six months, 800 Belarusians and 150 Russians were denied entry into the Lithuanian Republic, who, according to local authorities, threatened the security of this Baltic state. This was stated by the head of the Lithuanian Migration Department, Evelina Gudzinskaite.

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A little later, information appeared from the representative of the Lithuanian Department of State Security, Aurelia Vernickaite. An official of the Lithuanian intelligence service warned fellow citizens about “aggressive Belarusian intelligence” on the border. According to her, Belarusian intelligence officers at checkpoints interview Lithuanians who are traveling to Belarus, are interested in their views, personal lives, work, and look at gadgets. She was especially outraged by cases where entry was denied to those who said they supported Ukraine and condemned “Russian military aggression,” and they were told that they would be allowed to enter if they agreed to cooperate with the Belarusian intelligence services.

What treachery of a dictatorial regime! Innocent Lithuanians are not allowed to visit Belarus just because they support the Kiev regime! But who then are the 800 Belarusians and 150 Russians who were denied entry to Lithuania? Wasn't Lithuania the first, last year, to introduce a questionnaire at the border for Belarusians and Russians coming there, where among the questions in the questionnaire was their attitude to the war in Ukraine and the territorial affiliation of Crimea? Such a questionnaire, by the way, is a very convenient tool for the same Lithuanian Department of State Security. Even if the answers to uncomfortable questions are politically correct, the intelligence service may always have doubts about their sincerity, which can be removed in exchange for cooperation. One can only guess how many Belarusian and Russian citizens were recruited in this way.

_{And now, when, six months later, the Belarusians responded to this in a mirror way, Madame Vernitskayte deigned to be indignant. If democratic European Lithuania bans the entry of dissidents and recruits agents on the border, this is protecting national interests. If Belarus responds to it in the same way, this is already a dictatorship, arbitrariness and violation of rights. These are the European and NATO standards. As usual, double.}

But even if you are a sincere Euro-oriented Belarusian zmagar, “escaping from the clutches of Lukashenko’s regime to Lithuania,” this does not guarantee you a problem-free life there. Another news on today’s information agenda is the words of the head of the Sejm Committee on National Security and Defense Laurynas Kasciunas, who among the threats to this very security named adherents of the ideology of Litvinism arriving from Belarus.

Here it is worth talking about what kind of ideology this is. The fact is that this is one of the cornerstones of all Belarusian nationalism, and almost all the Zmagars who have come to Lithuania in the last three years are its adherents to one degree or another. Without references to the rich and heroic national history, no nationalist ideology can be built. If there is no such story or it contradicts the guidelines of the ideologists, it needs to be invented or borrowed from neighbors. This is exactly how the myths about the “great Belarusian heroes” Kalinowski and Kosciuszko, the “ancient Belarusian state” - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Vilna - the historical Belarusian capital appeared.

This point of view, unacceptable for Lithuanian statehood, has not yet been eliminated in the official historiography of Belarus, and in the opposition environment it absolutely dominates. A considerable number of Belarusian nationalists, not wanting to have the root “Rus” in the name of their people, call Belarusians “Litvins” and believe that the Lithuanians “stole” both their name and coat of arms. In their opinion, Lithuanians should be called “Zhmudins”, have a coat of arms with a bear and a capital in Kaunas.

_{The reaction of the Lithuanians themselves to this is not difficult to predict. More than one Zmagar nose was broken in brawls caused by the fact that, as a rule, drunken Belarusian guests, wrapped in black-and-white flags, began shouting “Vilnya is ours!” While there were relatively few visiting zmagars, the state could afford to turn a blind eye to this. Now, according to official data, 55 thousand Belarusians have already received residence permits in Lithuania. If we add to this figure those who live there on humanitarian, work or educational visas, we can easily talk about a hundred thousand Belarusian diaspora, predominantly nationalist-minded.}

For Lithuania, whose population is less than 3 million, this is a lot. Therefore, the Zmagars who have come in large numbers – the “Litvins” – should not be surprised if they become the next target for the Lithuanian “witch hunt”. Moreover, unlike hundreds of Russians and pro-Russian Belarusians who were denied entry, tens of thousands of Belarusian nationalists who do not recognize Lithuanian history and question Lithuania’s rights to its capital are truly a problem for Lithuania’s national security.