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Lithuania recalled its ambassador from Austria Monday amid blame-trading for Vienna's release of a Russian wanted over a bloody 1991 Soviet crackdown on the Baltic state's independence drive.

"The ambassador will be recalled for consultations," Asta Skaisgiryte Liauskiene, deputy foreign minister, told journalists.

In a statement, President Dalia Grybauskaite slammed Austria's "rush" to free Mikhail Golovatov, saying its fellow EU member's move was "politically unjustifiable" and flew in the face of European legal cooperation.

Vilnius has demanded that Vienna explain why it released war crimes suspect Golovatov, who faces a life sentence if convicted in Lithuania.

Speculation is raging that Russian pressure led Austria to free Golovatov less than 24 hours after Thursday's arrest at Vienna airport on an EU warrant issued by Lithuania.

"The main reason behind Austria's move is subservience to Russia and a lack of a sense of honour," independence-era leader Vytautas Landsbergis, now an EU lawmaker, told AFP.

Justice Minister Remigijus Simasius said he would raise the issue with his Austrian and other EU counterparts during unrelated talks in Poland on Tuesday.

"It's very likely that this case is related to a political decision, and Russia's influence in making that political decision," he told AFP.

Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger defended the decision.

"We are a state of law, with an independent justice system that makes its own decisions," Austria Press Agency quoted him as saying.

"A request was made by Lithuania, we issued a deadline for delivery of the documents with very concrete information. The deadline elapsed without the concrete information. The prosecution thus decided not to put out a detention order. That must be accepted," he added.

Lithuania's prosecutor's office claimed Austrian law allows 48 hours of detention and that it supplied details within seven hours of Austria's request, made a day after Golovatov's arrest.

At an EU meeting in Brussels Monday, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis met with Spindelegger and told him catching Golovatov meant as much to Vilnius as bringing fugitive Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic to justice at a UN tribunal, his office said.

Golovatov lead the Alpha Group, a Soviet unit that stormed the TV tower in Vilnius on January 13, 1991.

At least 14 civilians died and hundreds were injured as Moscow tried to bring Lithuania to heel after its 1990 secession from the Soviet Union.

"We paid a very high price for the restoration of independence 20 years ago," Azubalis said in a statement. "The case of January 13 and the execution of justice are matters of national importance."

He pledged to "mobilise all possible diplomatic and legal means" to call Austria to account.

"Lithuania must ensure that the EU learns the lesson of this lack of solidarity," he added.

Moscow recognised Lithuania after a failed August 1991 coup by hardliners in the Soviet capital. The entire bloc crumbled that December.

Six Lithuanian Soviet officials were convicted and jailed in the 1990s over the crackdown, but Vilnius has been unable to try suspects believed to be in Russia and Belarus.

Lithuania's ties with Moscow have been rocky, notably since it joined the EU and NATO in 2004.

By Jonas Mackevičius