Russia calls Lithuania provocative after conviction of former Soviet official
It accused the court of ignoring witness testimony and not allowing Russian diplomats to attend the trial
Moscow — On Thursday, Russia’s foreign ministry accused Lithuania of an unfriendly and provocative act, a day after a Lithuanian court found a former Soviet defence minister guilty of war crimes for his role in a 1991 crackdown in Lithuania. A Vilnius court sentenced Dmitry Yazov, 94, in absentia to 10 years in prison. He is the highest-ranking person on a list of 67 former military officials and army officers being sentenced after the three-year trial. “We characterise the given actions as extremely unfriendly and essentially provocative, demonstrating the bias and political motivation of this disgraceful judgment,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement. It accused the court of ignoring witness testimony and not allowing Russian diplomats to attend the trial. “The attempts by the authorities to rig obvious facts using legal manipulations simply reflect the deconstructive course of the current Lithuanian leadership with regards to Russia,” the foreign ministry said. Lithuani...
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