G. Landsbergis: the president is “a little biased” in his assessment of the VSD speaker’s commission

“I’m probably not going too far from the truth when I say that the president is a bit biased in his assessment of the commission’s work,” the minister told reporters on Thursday.

This is how G. Landsbergis reacted to G. Nausėda’s words that the temporary commission of the Seimas is “illegal as it is” because its head Vytautas Bakas does not have the authority to work with classified information.

At that time, V. Bakas told BNS that he has the right to work with restricted information, which is enough for the commission to explain possible violations.

The Seimas formed a temporary commission of inquiry to clarify the story of the VSD speaker in October, and it must submit its conclusions by March 10.

The commission is headed by V. Bakas, a representative of the Democratic faction “Vardan Lietuvos”, who served as the chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Seimas last term. It consists mainly of ruling conservatives, representatives of the Liberal Movement and the Freedom faction. The opposition, with the exception of the Democrats, did not delegate its members to the commission.

The initiative to create the commission arose after the prosecutor’s office stated in the spring of this year that the intelligence officer’s report to the then chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee about the actions of the VSD leadership submitted four years ago was improperly examined.

The material submitted by the speaker was examined in the Seimas in the previous term. In 2019, a VSD official appealed to the then chairman of the Seimas NSGK, V. Bakas, complaining to his managers about possible illegal activities.

This story is described in the book “The Speaker and the President” by investigative journalists Dovydas Pancerov and Birutė Davidonytė.

The former official claimed to journalists that in July 2018, he received several sheets with many names and a verbal order “to check the election team and the list of possible supporters of one candidate” from the deputy director of the department, Remigijaus Bridikis. As it turned out, the supporters and associates of the then presidential candidate G. Nausėda were specified in it.

The NSGK of the Seimas, which then examined the situation, stated that the VSD acted legally by checking the environment of the presidential candidates, but called on them to refuse verbal orders in such situations.

VSD representatives claimed to have checked the teams of all presidential candidates, the reporter himself assured that only G. Nausėda’s surroundings were checked, and R. Bridikis confirmed to him that the lists were received from G. Nausėda himself. The president categorically denies that he asked the VSD to check his team.