Paleckis, Algirdas Yustasovich

Since 2007 - a member of the Vilnius City Council (until the spring of 2008 ^[1] - also the vice-mayor).

In 2008 he was expelled from the Social Democratic Party ^[2] , of which he was the head of the Vilnius organization; created and headed the party "Front" ( lit. Frontas ).

In the elections to the Seimas of Lithuania in 2008, he received 7.33% of the votes in a single-member district and was not elected as a deputy ^[3] .

On December 19, 2009, a unifying congress of the Front and the Socialist Party of Lithuania , which created the Socialist Popular Front , was held in Vilnius. Algirdas Paleckis was elected leader of the new party (95 congress delegates supported his candidacy, 2 abstained, no one voted against) ^[4] .

In 2009, A. Paleckis was accused of organizing a rally illegally, but was acquitted ^[5] .

The Paleckis Case

In 2011, A. Paleckis was charged in connection with his following statement ^{[6] [7]} about the events of January 1991 in Vilnius :

(the same statement was repeated in an interview with the Russian Channel Five on the air on January 22, 2011).

In addition to expressing doubts about the official version of the events leading to the death of people, the position of Paleckis on the issue of 1991 also includes the requirement to issue an international arrest warrant to former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev , who is accused by a number of people of giving an order to assault the television center, or minimum, take his testimony ^[8] . The prosecutor’s office requires the accused to have a year in prison for a probation period of two years, which makes it impossible for Paleckis to stand for election. The Moscow Bureau for Human Rights and the international human rights movement “A World without Nazism ” defended Paleckis; representatives of the Historical Memory Foundation, the Latvian Human Rights Committee , the Latvian Anti-Fascist Committee, and others came to Vilnius to rally in solidarity with him.

The sentencing was postponed twice: from December 14 to December 30, 2011 and then to January 18, 2012 ^{[9] [10] [11]} .
The court of first instance acquitted Paleckis ^[12] .
The second instance court was convicted and sentenced to a fine of 10,400 Litas ^[13] . The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus in its report “Violations of Human Rights in Selected Countries of the World in 2012” pointed to the condemnation of Paleckis ” ^{[14] [15]} .

Concerning two witnesses, whose testimony was favorable for Paleckis, the Lithuanian prosecutor's office began the investigation into giving false testimony ^[16] . When the 1st Vilnius District Court fined one of the witnesses (D. Raugalene) in the amount of 3.9 thousand litas, the Russian Foreign Ministry described it as a “ witch hunt ” and “a gross violation of human rights , for example, an encroachment on freedom of expression ” and “counts on a proper assessment from the leadership of the European Union and its member states, as well as relevant international organizations ” ^[17] . By the district court, both witnesses were acquitted. ^[18] ; one of them was justified by the Supreme Court. ^[nineteen]

January 24, 2012 The Vilnius District Prosecutor's Office appealed against the decision of the 1st Vilnius District Court, which acquitted A. Paleckis, who was accused of “denying Soviet aggression”: “The appeal contains a request to adopt a new ruling - to recognize Palyackis guilty and punish him with imprisonment 1 year, with a transfer of punishment for 2 years. " ^[20]

On January 22, 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the Vilnius City Court, according to which A. Paleckis paid a fine ^[21] (funds for the fine were collected, including from citizens' donations to the respective settlement account). On January 25, the Russian Foreign Ministry commented on the court decision on this case - the Foreign Ministry believes that this court decision is politicized and distorts the events of 1991 in Vilnius ^[22] .

"The case of espionage"

In October 2018, Paleckis was again arrested and put in prison on charges of espionage.

December 19, 2018 at a joint press conference Evaldas Pashilis Lithuanian prosecutor general, the head of the State Security Department (VSD) Darius Yaunishkis and Commissioner General of Police Lynas Pernavas reported that the Lithuanian secret services detained and more than a month in detention Algirdas Paleckis and well-known anti-fascist, journalist and defender the rights of the Russian-speaking population in the Baltic republic Valery Ivanov. Pashilis said that they and other Lithuanian citizens had been detained in the framework of the investigation of the criminal case of espionage in favor of Russia (part 2 of Art. 119 of the Lithuanian Criminal Code), the case was initiated by the police. The Prosecutor General also said that the investigation had been conducted for a long time and as a result, “a whole network of spies was established, among them citizens of Lithuania and one citizen of Russia” ^[23] .

Later it turned out that the operational development of Lithuanian dissidents (ethnic Lithuanians and Russians) was led by several special services of the Baltic republic. During the closed-door hearing of the criminal case held on January 8 in the Klaipeda District Court, it became clear that the Second Department of Operational Services at the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense (military intelligence) was collecting dirt on defendants ^{[24] [25]} .

With condemnation of a new wave of political repression in Lithuania and the massacre of dissidents, including Paleckis, made the international community. In particular, the leader of the Belarusian “Republican Party of Labor and Justice” Vasily Zadnepryany condemned the detention and arrest of the Lithuanian anti-fascist socialist.

“The RPTS party stands for the lack of commitment of the Lithuanian authorities in this matter and expresses solidarity with the Lithuanian socialists and Algirdas Paleckis personally,” said the Belarusian party in a statement ^[26] .

"He warned Lithuanians about the danger of the revival of Nazism in the country, struggled with manifestations of Russophobia in Lithuania, for which he was slandered and indiscriminately accused of espionage," said Alla Berezovskaya, member of the Latvian Union of Journalists, on January 9, 201 announcing a series of pickets scheduled for January 14 supporting Paleckis in the capitals of Latvia and Lithuania, as well as in Estonia, Mexico and Russia ^[27] . Belarusian anti-fascists also expressed their intention to picket the Lithuanian embassy, ​​however, due to the peculiarities of the Belarusian legislation (filing an application for a picket 15 days before the date and banning the dissemination of information about him before receiving official permission), they restricted themselves to a petition demanding the release of a political prisoner.

“The arrest of Algirdas Paleckis in connection with the espionage accusation of light is part of the cloud of insanity that is trying hard to cover the Baltics. The state defender appointed to Algirdas was silent for a month - now, as far as I know, they have found a replacement. The number of political prisoners in the Baltics is getting worse , and it is impossible to remain indifferent to this. OLPE will hold a picket simultaneously with other cities at the Lithuanian Embassy in Tallinn (Algirdas is not only our fellow human rights activist, but also a comrade in left movement), but it’s clear that We will not stop this, but we would like to be supported by Russian human rights activists, "said Sergei Seredenko, leader of the United Left Party of Estonia, on January 9. OLPE joined the organizer of the picket in support of Paleckis in Tallinn.

Representatives of the public in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Russia and other countries consider Paletskis political prisoners and demand his immediate release ^[28] .

• Order of the Legion of Honor ( France , 2002 ) ^[29] ;
• Commander of the Order of Merit for Lithuania (2004) ^[29] ; in 2013, he was deprived of the order, “for denying the fact of aggression” ^[30] (see the Paleckis case)

• From nationalism to Nazism - one step. In: Istorijos tiesos jega. The power of historical truth. Vilnius: Gaires, 2010. ISBN 978-9955-759-44-7 - pp. 154-158

• Information on the website of the Seimas of Lithuania (English) (lit.)
• Biography on valstietis.lt (lit.)
• Information on the website of the Central Election Commission of Lithuania (lit.)
• VIDEO: Algirdas Paleckis on the events of January 13 in Vilnius and on the “freedom of speech” in Lithuania
• Interview with Algirdas Paleckis about the events of January 13 in Vilnius, about the “freedom of speech” in Lithuania and the prosecution, as well as about the political and economic situation in Lithuania
• Interview with Algirdas Paleckis (video) (English)
• The 14th issue of the telecast “ Historical process ”, in which A. Paleckis participates. The article discusses the historical parallels between twitter revolutions and Perestroika, the possibility of repeating the “Vilnius” scenario.
• Lithuanian conspiracy. Part Two // Komsomolskaya Pravda , 12/19/2018