Lithuania. A one-man show

[Robertman]

The truth is that the visit of President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite to China for the opening of the China International Import Expo a bit, to put it mildly, confused and shocked me because this visit was conducted at the time of trade war between the USA and China, as well as, in times of calls from Washington to its allies in Eastern Europe to have no dealings with Beijing...

There is no need for analysis of Lithuanian President's actions to come to obvious conclusions, namely, such a visit may be characterized as an open-faced move and even high treason against the USA, betrayal of its strategic and geopolitical interests.

And should we even be telling about any principles of morality or fulfillment of obligations towards NATO in the case of Vilnius? Sometimes, I doubt that Lithuania is not only able but also is not ready to fulfill its obligations...

The State is living in conditions of extreme austerity measures with regard to national budgeting system. It can't afford to develop its infrastructure - that is how I view the President's veto of the law on building a metropolitan rapid transit system, which has been recently approved by the Seimas. The same fate befell military expenditures and augmentation of country's military budget. Grybauskaite has blocked these budget adjustments entailing additional financing for Lithuanian Defense Ministry...

And I wonder how Lithuania is going to fulfill its obligations to NATO, which requires the increase in defense expenditures to 2% of the GDP? So, what is it hoping for here?

In my view, what is happening in Lithuania is a show with political imbalance between Lithuanian President and the Seimas in the hope of escaping or significantly reducing the scale of Lithuania's annual donations to NATO defense budget. The visit to China, which is Washington's strategic and economic rival, represents an essential and 'on-time' part of this show; some form of blackmail.

I wonder if Grybauskaite fully understands that in an attempt to use the US-China confrontation for own political gain she is playing a rather dangerous game with the USA and NATO and is overplaying her hand here. Or did she decide at the end of her term to go all-in to secure the better live in her old age?

 

[Westphalian]

I thought for a second this was a thread about Litwin .

Imagine my disappointment to see Grybauskite, a loathesome loud mouth and Russophobe who is leading her country to terminal economic and demographic decline.

This is of course an ego boost for her. But in the big scheme, nobody cares about Lithuania.

 

[PoS]

Lithuania is like a very unimportant country- just like the rest of the Baltic states. The focus of Europe should be in dealing with the larger countries of the area.

 

[Rogue Valley]

A blog in which anyone can publish by registering. The OP is probably the author below pushing his agenda.

Source: Lithuania. A one-man show

 

[Chagos]

A blog in which anyone can publish by registering. The OP is probably the author below pushing his agenda.

Source: Lithuania. A one-man show

Yeah, that blog (respectively some of its contributors) have been "blessing" us with their emissions quite often recently.

Always in form of a one-post drive-by that doesn't really merit any debate.

 

[Chagos]

I thought for a second this was a thread about Litwin ��.

Imagine my disappointment to see Grybauskite, a loathesome loud mouth and Russophobe who is leading her country to terminal economic and demographic decline.

This is of course an ego boost for her. But in the big scheme, nobody cares about Lithuania.

Well, it possibly over-challenges your powers of assessment, or it might have occurred to you that a Kremlin-phobe gets elected into office on account of his/her voters sharing into the same distrust and dislike.

If you were as acquainted with Lithuanians as you sometimes claim, you'd know that the NKVD-sponsored demographic decline from 1941 to 1948 is still pretty much alive in the memory of people that weren't even born at the time. But they have parents and grandparents.

As to nobody caring about Lithuania, hang onto your hopes.

 

[Rogue Valley]

This is of course an ego boost for her. But in the big scheme, nobody cares about Lithuania.

Lithuania and Ukraine have quite a close relationship. Teachers and children from parts of war-torn Donbas are being hosted in Lithuania, far from Russian artillery and landmines.

There are always Lithuanian military instructors in Ukraine, teaching NATO doctrine and tactics. Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine have formed a joint combat Brigade.