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In its response to the informal Arria Formula meeting of the UN Security Council being held today, on 22 December in New York and convened by Russia to discuss "the situation of ethnic minorities and the glorification of Nazism in the Baltic and Black sea region", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania states that Lithuania sees this event as yet another effort to spread a false narrative about neighboring countries for political ends and as yet another attempt by Russia to divert the attention of the international community from the deteriorating human rights situation in Russia and from the military escalation at Ukraine’s borders. Russia's repeated attempts to manipulate UN Security Council formulas for disinformation purposes have been condemned in a statement by like-minded members of the UN Security Council and European Union member states and others, to which Lithuania has joined.

"We want to make it clear that Lithuania and its partners see and understand what Russia is doing and what its aims are. It is unfortunate that Russia is spreading untrue interpretations of the human rights situation in Lithuania and neighboring countries, but this does not in any way diminish our determination to strive for universal human rights,” said Foreign Vice-Minister Adomėnas.

The international community recognizes that the independence of the judiciary is an essential basis for the implementation of the rule of law and the guarantee of human rights. Among the invited speakers at the event is a person who defended the accused in the January 13 case, in which the Vilnius Regional Court found all suspects guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2019. The events of January 13 resulted in the deaths of unarmed people in Lithuania, including women and children, under Soviet tanks. This is not the first time that Russia has sought to distort the events of January 13 in Lithuania by calling their perpetrators innocent victims, and by prosecuting the judges of the January 13 case. This is a blatant interference in the work of Lithuanian courts and runs contrary to the principles of international law.

Lithuania points out that Russia continues to apply restrictions on freedom of expression and to repress its independent media and journalists, human rights activists and non-governmental organizations. According to the human rights organization Memorial, there are currently 426 political prisoners in Russia, including Alexei Navalny, who has been imprisoned on false accusations following a failed poisoning.

Russia's efforts to deal with and eliminate the aforementioned human rights organization, Memorial, whose work helps to give meaning to historical memory, are reprehensible. The organization works to expose the crimes of totalitarian regimes, honours the memory of the victims and seeks justice.

Systematic human rights violations in the Russian-occupied territories of Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria are a cause for grave concern and include the persecution of journalists, the independent media and human rights defenders, constraints on civil society, the closure of organizations, illegal detentions, imprisonment and torture.a