Lithuania says Russia responsible for exploding parcels that caused fires
VILNIUS (Reuters) – Russia is behind explosive parcels sent from Lithuania to European countries, a Lithuanian presidential adviser said on Tuesday, amid alarm amongst NATO countries that sabotage organised by Moscow nearly caused an air disaster.
Western governments and intelligence agencies in Europe have previously pointed to Moscow as being the source of a series of fires and acts of sabotage in Europe aimed at destabilising allies of Ukraine.
Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported in October that explosive parcels that caused fires in courier depots in Britain, Germany and Poland in July originated in Lithuania.
Britain and Germany have been investigating packages that burst into flames at depots in Birmingham and Leipzig, with Berlin saying a plane crash had been narrowly avoided when an air freight parcel caught fire.
"We are telling our allies that it's not random, it's part of military operations," Kestutis Budrys, an advisor to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, told Ziniu radio on Tuesday.
"We need to neutralise and stop it at the source, and the source is Russia's military intelligence," he said.
Budrys' comments were the first time a Lithuanian official has pointed the finger at Russian military intelligence for a specific act of sabotage.
Reuters was unable to reach Budrys for comment by telephone. The Russian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gazeta Wyborcza reported that a parcel had caused a fire in a truck at a site belonging to a courier firm near Warsaw.
Poland said in October that it had detained four people in an investigation into explosive parcels being sent by courier to European Union countries and Britain as part of a plot that ultimately aimed to send such packages to the United States and Canada.
It also closed the Russian consulate in the western city of Poznan due to suspected Russian attempts at sabotage.
Britain's Security Service (MI5) Director General Ken McCallum said in October that Russia's GRU military intelligence service was trying to cause "mayhem" across Britain and Europe.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, Barbara Erling, Marek Strzelecki, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Anna Koper in Warsaw, Writing by Alan Charlish, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
