OPINION: LONG EARS AND LITHUANIAN DIPLOMATS
LithuaniaTribune
Aug 30 2013
The Lithuania Tribune presents an opinion article by RamŔnas Bogdanas,
as published on , in which he meticulously analyses the
details of the leaked conversations of Lithuanian diplomats in an
attempt to discover who was interested in publishing this information.
There is one main question regarding the disclosed phone conversations
of two Lithuanian ambassadors: who recorded them and leaked on youtube?
Focusing on the content of the conversations would mean swallowing
the bait. And maybe we have two questions: one person recorded,
another leaked? Responsible officers who have the means to find the
answers are looking for them and we can only assume.
Let’s begin with the location of the ‘long ears’ – leaker(s). There
are two possibilities: on the inside or on the outside. Who on the
inside would be interested enough? First of all, in Lithuania there
are institutions monitoring the flow of confidential information.
Secondly, the people responsible may be professionals or daring
amateurs. What is more, these are people with access to recordings
of diplomat conversations. The leaker must have been an interested
person or institution. Lithuanian institutions are capable of finding
less painful ways to replace an unsuitable employee.
Things are slightly different with persons. Nowadays, we are bombarded
via all possible channels that global competition is a good thing. It
also exists in the civil service where the number of important posts
is smaller than the number of people who want them. It is fact that
Lithuania has (and must have) ambassadors in reserve. Some of them
are working really hard, some – idling through the corridors of the
Ministry, gathering information about the countries that will have
an ambassador rotation and plotting to take the free seat. One can
come up with a plethora of ideas to secure a better future.
But this version, though still plausible, is less possible than the
assumption that the leaker(s) is on the outside. First of all, the
disclosed conversations of the ambassadors to Azerbaijan and Hungary
have one thing in common – both are related to Azerbaijan. Even though
supposedly two different persons uploaded the videos on youtube –
a Lithuanian and a Turkmen – both titles and visual styling are the
same. From a philological point of view it would seem that the same
person made the English subtitles. The conversations were uploaded
on 8 July. They become publicly known at the end of July.
Russia’s schemes in Baku
On 4 July, an important Russian representative, ‘silovik’ Igor Sechin,
who currently runs the state oil company ‘Rosneft’, went to Baku. The
result of his visit was optimistic: Rosneft was presented with a
possibility to receive 20 per cent of the new gas deposit in the
Caspian Sea, Absheron. Despite the fact that the head of Lukoil is
Azerian in origin, in Azerbaijan BritishPetroleum, Statoil, Exxon
Mobil, and Total, not Gazprom and Lukoil, are dominating. Recently,
Azerbaijan has committed to begin supplying half of its gas to Europe
using a new pipeline starting in 2019.
In the Southern Caucasus Russia lost Georgia, has Armenia under
its influence, but the strongest country is Azerbaijan, which the
West are using as a support point not only in the region, but also
in the Middle Asia. Russia is not interested at all in dealing with
the Mountain Karabah (Arcach) issue for it can be used to retain the
Armenians and lure Azerians.
At the end of 2010, the 10-year contract between Russia and Azerbaijan
regarding the rental of the Gabala Radar Station to the Russian armed
forces expired. The Azerians increased the yearly rent from $15 million
to $300 million, and the Russians left. Even though Russia strengthened
its military base in Gyumri, Armenia, after Sechin’s visit there have
been talks about Azerbaijan planning to buy weapons from Russia for
$1.6 billion. Yerevan’s press was uneasy about the deal, especially
regarding the offensive armaments.
According to the Iranian press, it was the overly optimistic Sechin
who organized Vladimir Putin’s visit to Baku on 13 August. That was
Putin’s third visit to Azerbaijan. Sechin and Minister of Defence
Sergey Shoygu accompanied him. But neither the weaponry purchase
contract nor the agreement regarding the Absheron deposit were signed.
The visit was crowned sadly by a two-year humanitarian cooperation
programme.
Some think that Putin left empty-handed because he pushed President
Ilham Aliyev to sign the Customs Union and participate in the
Eurasian Union too hard. Baku has an alternative of sorts that can
be implemented this autumn in Vilnius – an association agreement with
the EuropeanUnion. Russia is doing all it can to subdue Azerbaijan.
Recently, it has destroyed Baku’s plans to lay a pipeline on the bottom
of the Caspian Sea: purportedly, the sea’s status isn’t defined and
every coast country has to give its permission.
It seems that our ambassadors were on ‘silovik’ Sechin’s to-do list to
create a favourable atmosphere for Putin’s visit. Aliyev is being set
against Lithuania, the future Eastern Partnership’s summit host. At
the same time, a shadow is cast on the EU’s diplomacy. Azerbaijan’s
ambassador to Lithuania Hasan Mammadzada accurately called this an
information provocation.
Putin’s hopes in Baku fell flat, but the scandal in Vilnius was
a success. When Wikileaks leaked official dispatches of the US
diplomats from Moscow in which Putin was described as an alpha male
(the dominant male in a band of animals), Washington did not announce
any public resentment regarding the unprofessional behaviour of its
diplomats. If things were done, they were done silently.
Would it not be better to take example from the court practices –
illegally obtained evidence is simply rejected. Baku resisted the
main goal of the disclosure; i.e. to irritate Aliyev, and the calmer
northerners, Lithuanians, will implement the secondary goal and sack
a few diplomats?
Poor disguise of the subtitles’ author
I listened to both recordings thoroughly. And I didn’t find anything
tragic in them. The culprits could not find anything more serious
even though I’m pretty sure they had more material to choose from.
Slightly smug – that is a typical characteristic of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs employees, but using Russian jargon, considering
themselves knights on an invisible front, but forgetting that they
are talking on an insecure line. I heard there were recordings much
more scandalous than these. But that is just the way our diplomatic
corps is. We have what we have. Once, I was introduced to a guy with
a shaven head and almost a finger-thick golden chainlet in Vilnius.
Before I was told that the person was a Lithuanian ambassador on
vocation I thought I was dealing with a criminal.
The comparison of the conversations and the translations reveals
certain facts about the translator. He/she does not know Renatas
JuÅ¡ka’s jargon ‘gruzilina’ (‘to load’, ‘to burden’) and translates
it as ‘Georgia’ (‘Gruzija’ in Lithuanian). But when Edma is mentioned,
he is identified in the translation as ‘Edminas Bagdonus’.
Since Edminas’s and my surnames are similar, I know very well that
this is how English-speaking diplomats sometimes write Lithuanian
surnames – writing ‘us’ to pronounce ‘as’ (in order to avoid the ‘æz’
ending). A very primitive way to disguise as a translator from the
West. What is more, the text contains some English sentences that no
person who knows the language fairly well would ever come up with.
And if he/she can identify the diplomat currently working actively
in the Eastern partnership programme just by his shortened name,
for some reason he/she does not translate when Juška speaks about
‘papa’. The translator does not know that it is VytautasLandsbergis’s,
who has been working at the European Parliament in these latter
years, unofficial nickname, used in absentia. The nickname is known
in Lithuania by pretty much everyone who has been in the Government
and maybe it is even more widespread. But a foreigner, with little
experience in such translations, won’t know this.
In ambassador to Azerbaijan ArtÅ”ras Žurauskas’s (the spelling is
‘Jurauskas’, should be ‘Zhurauskas’) conversation the name ‘KÄ~Ystutis’
is butchered into ‘Kyastitus’ for disguise purposes, and the second
participant of the conversation, an employee of the Ministry, is
identified incorrectly.
When Žurauskas says a few Russian sentences about Turkmenistan,
they are demonstratively left untranslated, as if to show that the
translator does not know the language. In order to play off the
President of Turkmenistan against the others it is the best text
to do so, but in this case the target is Lithuanian ambassador to
Azerbaijan. So when the ambassador calls sluggish Turkmen bureaucrats
‘Ä~Miudikai absoliutÅ”s’ (in Lithuanian: ‘total weirdoes’),
the translator makes the expression stronger for future readers:
‘total morons’.
Week defences of the ambassadors
Žurauskas, too, surprises greatly, finishing the conversation with
information about the work and family. “That’s great, KÄ~Ystas”
(12:43).
Everything would be great, except the other person he is talking to
is Gediminas. It seems the ambassador, too, has reasons to hide the
identity of his companion. Maybe he suspects his conversations may
be bugged?
And perhaps he is acting this way because his companion, Gediminas
Å iaudvytis, used to be Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Consular Department, but had to leave the post when Lithuania’s
State Security Department revealed the taking of bribes for visas
in the consulate in Saint Petersburg. Currently, Å iaudvytis works
at ‘Avia Solutions Group’, which spawned-off of ‘FlyLal’ after it
went bankrupt and left Lithuania without a national carrier. The
group’s net profit for the first quarter of 2013 amounted to 23,508
million LTL. The company’s Chair of the Board is another Gediminas –
Žiemelis. Yeah, the same guy from bankrupt ‘FlyLal’.
This entire story shows clearly that the security of governmental
communications has to be taken care of; otherwise, we will be serving
others as a card during high-stakes games. Our enemies will obtain
our national secrets and our allies will be afraid to say anything
lest it will get leaked.
Juška, having talked over the phone from his office in Budapest with
the Ministry about work-related matters, shouldn’t be hiding under
Article 22 of the Constitution regarding the protection of privacy
and personal life.
The opinion that Lithuania is insignificant and only several aspects
should be protected is wrong. Ambassadors have not only to talk,
but also to think. The attack is both direct and indirect.
In autumn, the EU leaders in Vilnius will be waiting not only
for Azerbaijan. The big prize is Ukraine’s decision regarding the
Association Agreement with the EU – fun things with Kiev should be
expected. We are participating in international politics as part of
the EU and in the backstage every janitor may be a colonel in disguise.
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