All news on the topic: Lithuania

Following an investigation by OCCRP and Buro into apps secretly sending data to Russia and Belarus, Lithuania is weighing the legal status of the Belarusian businessman behind them.

Mobile apps that appear to be Lithuanian were developed by a Belarusian company, raising risks that exiled activists could be surveilled by security agents from the authoritarian country.

Over the course of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, Belarus has become an indispensable logistical and industrial stronghold for the Russian military. By providing infrastructure, training grounds, and capabilities for hybrid pressure on Europe, the Lukashenka regime is helping Russia prolong the conflict.

For years, the Baltic states dismissed the Kremlin’s increasingly outlandish claims – from implying they were allowing Ukrainian drones to strike Russia from their territory to allegations they were preparing to deport their native Russian speakers – as propaganda. Note, debunk, move on.

Despite a range of prohibitions, Lithuanian companies continued to supply Russia with drone components, Starlink terminals, and spare parts for the terminals, The Insider found in collaboration with the Lithuanian investigative journalism organization Siena.

Millions have viewed videos claiming that children are being sold through coded advertisements on the popular second-hand online marketplace Vinted.

Heavy machine guns have been mounted aboard a tanker that supplies energy to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, according to surveillance photos obtained by reporters.

A nightmare scenario has been playing on eastern European minds with increasing intensity since Donald Trump returned to the White House: what if Russia attacks and the US does not join the fight?

Having exercised unchallenged power in Belarus since 1994, Alexander Lukashenko has earned himself not only the title of “Europe’s last dictator,” but also a well-deserved reputation as a shrewd international player.

Lithuania’s Prosecutor General’s Office reports that unknown individuals copied 600,000 records from the Register Centre’s database.

According to media reports, a network of payment systems such as Payeer and Piastrix, reportedly used in connection with semi-underground online casinos across the former USSR, has been linked to former employees of Alfa-Bank and IBOX Bank.

Russia is reportedly stockpiling hundreds of thousands of fibre-optic drones for a future assault on NATO and the Baltic States.

NATO fighter jets have been scrambled over Europe after mystery drones entered Latvian airspace and struck an oil depot.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Vilnius (Lithuania) has secured the conviction of four individuals in a case of attempted subsidy fraud, preventing the unlawful disbursement of nearly €2.6 million in EU funds.

The Vilnius City District Court (Lithuania) has convicted the members of an organised crime group in a fraudulent scheme involving EU and national funds intended for young farmers

Formerly secret UK documents show that Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) knew that expanding NATO to admit new members could lead to war with Russia.

When several Ukrainian drones crashed in the Baltics two weeks ago, Russian propaganda swiftly pushed a story that Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia had deliberately “opened” their airspace to enable Kiyv to attack Russia.

Arturas Hrancas, a Belarusian- and Armenian-citizen businessman who owns HeJi restaurant in Vilnius and the Esperanza Resort in Trakai, is linked to an institution of Alexander Lukashenko’s administration, an LRT investigation said.

The Eurojust operation reflects UN concerns about forced labor in scam call centers, highlighting the link between financial crime and human rights violations.

The grocery delivery service iGooods came under the control of entrepreneur Roman Yavorsky while its founder, Grigory Kunis, was under arrest in a case related to donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).

In the French city of Baden, Russian citizen Vladimir Antonov — one of the key figures in the high-profile bankruptcy case of Lithuania’s Snoras bank — was arrested on December 9 under a European Arrest Warrant.

Lithuanian journalists are protesting against legislation proposed by a powerful populist party that would make it easier to fire the head of the country’s public broadcaster.

Lithuanian authorities have detained four individuals accused of using hot-air balloons to smuggle cigarettes from Belarus, the Interior Ministry reported.

Lithuania closed the two border crossings with Belarus on 29 October after meteorological balloons flying from Belarus caused repeated disruption to air traffic.

Lithuania’s two border crossings with Belarus, at Medininkai and Šalčininkai, were both closed for several hours as a result of the balloon incidents.