Scandal in Lithuania ahead of poll

LITHUANIA: Lithuania was rocked by a new corruption scandal yesterday, ahead of elections to replace a president who was accused…

LITHUANIA: Lithuania was rocked by a new corruption scandal yesterday, ahead of elections to replace a president who was accused of having links to the Russian mafia and intelligence services. Daniel McLaughlin reports from Moscow.

Prosecutor General Mr Antanas Klimavicius told a special parliamentary hearing that he was investigating whether several politicians had taken bribes from an energy firm, after a series of police raids that critics called an attempt to derail Sunday's presidential run-off.

"There is data about the possible bribing of five members of parliament," Mr Klimavicius said, while declining to identify the deputies involved.

"It is suspected that the head of the Rubicon group was influencing the adoption or amendments of some laws in return for money. We are talking about cash changing hands," he said.

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"We have pre-election mayhem. I have doubts about the legitimacy of this election," the head of the election commission Mr Zenonas Vaigauskas told Reuters. He said the police raids had led him to believe that the result of the poll would be challenged, leading to further political instability.

The revelations came two days after Lithuania's Special Investigation Service (SIS), an anti-corruption unit, searched the headquarters of four political parties.

Two of them supported the impeachment of former president Mr Rolandas Paksas, who was ousted in April amid claims that his office had been infiltrated by Moscow's security services, and that he was being blackmailed by an alleged Russian arms dealer.

The other two parties raided are backing the election bid of former leader Mr Valdas Adamkus, who is favourite to win Sunday's vote, and whom Mr Paksas - a former stunt pilot - denounces as part of a powerful cabal of political elitists who engineered his downfall.

Mr Paksas has thrown his support and enduring popularity behind Mr Adamkus's opponent, Ms Kazimira Prunskiene, and counts the leader of the SIS - Mr Valentinas Junokas - among his allies, raising suspicions that a political motive lies behind the raids. "The question is why they went into action in this investigation four days before the elections," the Baltic nation's acting president, Mr Arturas Paulauskas, said. "It seems like they waited especially for the elections."

Prof Antanas Kulakauskas, a political scientist at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, concurred: "Obviously this is an attempt to compromise the Adamkus camp, organised by the Paksas camp that supports Prunskiene," he said.

But SIS chief Mr Junokas rejected such allegations, and the lingering suggestion that Russia's intelligence services have great influence over Mr Paksas's camp.

"The SIS does not carry out orders from foreign security agencies, east or west," Mr Junokas told parliament. "Perhaps our timing was not quite appropriate. But I was not prompted by anyone to choose this time."

Ms Prunskiene, who has vehemently denied having links to the KGB that terrorised Lithuanians during five decades of Soviet rule, also denounced the timing of the raids. "To have created such a storm before elections is absurd," she said. "I hope that the officials will be able to explain their actions."

The mayor of Vilnius, Mr Arturas Zuokas, said he was back in his office yesterday, a day after fleeing to Poland to avoid arrest by the SIS.

Lithuanians are weary of the scandal and bitter infighting that marred the country's run-up to joining NATO and the European Union earlier this year, and hope Sunday's election will bring stability to a nation that has maintained strong economic growth amid political uncertainty.

Mr Adamkus leads opinion polls by about 10 per cent.