Lithuanian press:It should be disclosed who recorded and posted
conversations of ambassadors to Azerbaijan and Hungary into Inte
16:16 31/08/2013 » IN THE WORLD
Ramūnas Bogdanas in the Lithuanian site Delfi.lt writes, that there is
one main question regarding the disclosed phone conversations of two
Lithuanian ambassadors: who recorded them and leaked on youtube?
According to the author focusing on the content of the conversations
would mean swallowing the bait. `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,’ Bogdanas writes.
Things are slightly different with persons, he notes. 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.
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.
The author also says that the dissemination of the phone conversations
of the two ambassadors are linked to Russian President Vladimir
Putin’s visit to Baku, `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
favorable 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,’ Bogdanas writes.
Talking of the translator who had prepared the subtitles of the
record, the author notes that it seems they tried to disguise as a
translator from the West.
The author wonders, would it not be better to take example from the
court practices ` illegally obtained evidence is simply rejected. `I
listened to both recordings thoroughly. And I didn’t find anything
tragic in them,’ notes the journalist and adds that the ambassadors
were talking in a slightly smug style, considering themselves knights
on an invisible front. `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,’ he writes.
Summing up the author says, `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.’
In its turn, as Delfi.lt reports, Andrius Kubilius, the leader of the
Homeland Union ` Lithuanian Christian Democrats, claims that the
Lithuanian government’s response to the scandal, in connection with
the disclosure of the phone conversations of Arturas Zhurauskasa and
Renatas Yushki, the ambassadors to Azerbaijan and Hungary, was to be
more rational.
“I have the impression that our eastern neighbors wanted to show by
this story that they see, hear and watch over all. That is, all the
talks, not specifically this or that ambassador’s; everything is fixed
and then at some point they do with it what is more profitable for
that moment,” the politician says.
According to `15min.lt’, records of Lithuanian Ambassadors to
Azerbaijan and Hungary were posted on YouTube in July, where, as
stated, the two ambassadors talk to the diplomats and businessmen in
Vilnius. On the record they informally share their personal
observations about the Azerbaijani-Armenian relations, as well as the
visit of Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius to Russia, etc.
After the publicity of these conversations in the network Ministry of
Foreign Affairs received the resignation petition of Arturas
Zhurauskas, the Lithuanian Ambassador to Azerbaijan. Lithuanian
officials called the publicity of these conversations in the network
an Information provocation.
Last week, Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas LinkeviÄ?ius reported that
the leaders of the state had lost their confidence in the ambassadors
and the latter can no longer hold the office. On Thursday, the
President of Lithuania Dalia Gribauskaite has signed a decree
recalling Zhurauskas and Yushki from their diplomatic mission.
Source: Panorama.am