The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry expressed protest on Monday over Moscow "falsely" labeling leader of the Forest Brothers movement Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas a nationalist, and summoned Russian Ambassador to Vilnius Alexander Udaltsov.
VILNIUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th October, 2018) The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry expressed protest on Monday over Moscow "falsely" labeling leader of the Forest Brothers movement Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas a nationalist, and summoned Russian Ambassador to Vilnius Alexander Udaltsov.
Last week, the Russian Foreign Ministry slammed the Lithuanian authorities' move to declare 2018 the year of Ramanauskas and noted that "the verdict on the war crimes that he committed against civilians does not have a statute of limitation." According to the member of Klaipeda City Council Vyacheslav Titov, as many as 8,000 civilians were killed at Ramanauskas' initiative.
"On 8 October, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania summoned the Ambassador of Russia to Lithuania Alexander Udaltsov. Lithuania's Foreign Vice-Minister Albinas Zananavicius voiced his strong protest over the Russian Foreign Ministry's false statement about Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas (aka Hawk) on the eve of his funeral," the statement read.
Vilnius called on Moscow to refrain from such statements and "attempts at rewriting history," according to the statement.
"Russia once again aims at discrediting the Lithuanian armed resistance movement and denying the fact of the Soviet occupation in general ... Lithuania takes pride in thousands of its women and men who participated in the anti-Soviet resistance movement and gives kudos to the leader and symbol of the movement - Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas," the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said.
The Lithuanian parliament declared 2018 the year of Ramanauskas in March, as this year marks the 100th anniversary of his birth. On Saturday, his remains, found in June, were buried at a cemetery in Vilnius.
