LITHUANIA: Lithuania's president regrets nothing, he tells Daniel McLaughlin in Vilnius
Today will be a peculiar day for Mr Rolandas Paksas, president of Lithuania, as he leads his country's Independence Day celebrations.
He is only months away from leading the Baltic nation into the EU and NATO, crowning a decade of rapid reform and economic growth since Lithuania fought free of the dying Soviet Union. At the same time, he faces political destruction from a hail of allegations linking him with the Russian mafia and secret services.
A parliamentary committee is expected this week to approve a vote to impeach Mr Paksas, a former champion stunt pilot, after branding him a threat to national security amid a scandal over his relationship with millionaire Mr Yuri Borisov, his main campaign financier and an alleged Russian arms dealer.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Paksas denounced enemies he said have long sought to oust him, and tried to calm EU and NATO fears that malevolent Russian forces could infiltrate the organisations through their new eastern members.
"I categorically deny any accusations against me," Mr Paksas said in the presidential palace in Vilnius, Lithuania's vibrant, historic capital. "There are no threats to national security and no contacts with the criminal world or international mafia. There are only attempts to use certain technologies to influence the opinion of the people and thus remove the president." These "technologies" appear to include the bugging by Lithuania's security services of telephone calls made by top officials and Mr Borisov, during one of which he allegedly threatened to make Mr Paksas "a political corpse".
Mr Borisov, who was a flight engineer during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, received Lithuanian citizenship by presidential decree shortly after Mr Paksas's election in January 2003, a victory to which he contributed advice and almost $500,000 dollars.
The Constitutional Court ruled the decree illegal in December, by which time Lithuanians were agog at allegations that Russian intelligence had infiltrated the president's office through a public relations firm, Almax, and that Mr Borisov was trying to blackmail Mr Paksas into making him an official adviser.
The president's reputation wasn't boosted by reports that he was heavily influenced by a Georgian mystic, Ms Lena Lolishvili, who sat beside Mr Paksas (47) and his wife Laima at the presidential inauguration ceremony.
Until then, she had been best known for claiming to cure the sick by wrapping them in holy toilet paper. Mr Paksas rubs his brow wearily when asked to comment on the allegations, which have united the political elite in calls for his resignation. "I want to underline that, of course, I have made certain mistakes, and I tell the public this quite openly. By these are not the sort of mistakes that should cause a scandal like we have now.
"The most important thing, once the scandal is over, is to analyse the reasons behind it, the actors in the scandal and the process of the scandal. Of course, it hasn't brought much benefit to Lithuania but it has revealed a lot about life in general here, and we have to take action make sure no one can cause such a scandal in the future." Mr Paksas hints at a conspiracy that Mr Borisov discusses in detail.
Speaking at the headquarters of his helicopter services firm outside Kaunas, Lithuania's second city, Mr Borisov says the country's political elite has united to prevent a popular president putting an end to their corruption, and to damage his supporters ahead of parliamentary elections this autumn.
"They have united against Paksas because life is good for them now. It's only bad for ordinary people. And the people support Paksas because they are sick of the empty talk and nonsense of other politicians," he told The Irish Times.
He said the political establishment had enlisted the intelligence services and Constitutional Court to help oust Mr Paksas, who won a surprise election victory by appealing to Lithuania's poor and disenfranchised, and running an unashamedly populist campaign that saw him fly a stunt plane under bridges. Mr Borisov (47), says he helped to bankroll the campaign and spark a remarkable surge in support for Mr Paksas that saw him steamroller his rival in a run-off for office.
"He wouldn't have been president without me," Mr Borisov said, speaking his native Russian. Grey hair slicked back and moustache neatly trimmed, Mr Borisov denied as ludicrous allegations that he had dealings with Libya, illegally traded arms or is connected with the Russian mafia.
He admits, however, to calling Mr Paksas - a man with whom he claims to have ridden bikes, played tennis and flown planes - a potential "political corpse".
"If I had threatened the president then that would be a criminal case, but I was speaking to someone else entirely, a friend and neighbour to whom I can talk about anything. It wasn't a threat but a conversation with a third person, not a state official." "They bring no shame on me," Mr Borisov said of the contents of the secretly recorded calls. "They bring shame on the political system, and those that air my personal conversations," he said.
"Anyway, politicians become political corpses through their own doing." Mr Borisov insisted Mr Paksas would remain in office, but said preparations for EU entry had been compromised by the political effort spent trying to oust him.
"There has been this nonsense on the television and in politics for six months now, and we join the EU in two months or so and we're doing nothing," He said. "Instead of trying to solve problems politicians are busying themselves with impeachment." If an impeachment vote goes ahead, probably in April, Lithuania faces the prospect of joining the EU under an acting leader and a dark political cloud.
But Mr Paksas and Lithuanian and EU officials insist preparations for accession continue apace, and that the country is one of the furthest down the road towards integration.
Lithuania's economic growth is one of the strongest in Europe, it has a well-educated, computerised workforce and, while there are fears over possible inflation and a "brain drain" to the west, there is little real opposition to EU membership in a country fiercely keen to realign after decades under Moscow's rule.
"The old democracies have gone through similar situations, have seen good times and bad, and EU members perceive the current situation as an internal issue that in no way questions our foreign policy goals," Mr Paksas said.
"Scandals come and go and this one will also pass. No one should doubt the reliability of Lithuania." While Mr Paksas's enemies accuse him of trying to delay the parliamentary commission's decision on an impeachment vote - he submitted long-requested information late last week, causing the Friday 13th deadline to lapse - he insists he will see Lithuania safely into the EU and NATO.
Opponents claim his victory would dangerously increase personal presidential power; allies say defeat would leave corruption to reign unbridled, and wish Mr Paksas had quietly rallied more senior politicians to his cause before launching his campaign against graft.
Asked if he regrets anything along the rocky road from election to looming impeachment, Mr Paksas speaks his one English word of the interview: "Nothing".