Russia warns Lithuania against squaring historical accounts
MOSCOW. March 17 (Interfax) - The detention in Lithuania of Russian citizen Yury Mel on suspicion of involvement in the attack on the Vilnius TV tower in January 1991, must not be politicized, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.
"We will closely follow the situation. We would like to warn the Lithuanian side that the situation should not be politicized and that no attempts should be made to square historical accounts," Lukashevich said, according to a posting on the Foreign Ministry's website.
Immediately after the news arrived about Mel's detention, the Russian diplomats working in Vilnius got in touch with Lithuanian law enforcement services, Lukashevich said. They secured permission to meet with the arrested Russian citizen and expressed readiness to help find a skilled defense attorney for him.
"The Lithuanian side's attention was drawn to Mel's chronic diseases and need for in permanent medical observation and medicine," Lukashevich said.
The Russian embassy in Vilnius continues rendering all necessary assistance to Mel, he said.
Mel was detained on March 12 at the checkpoint Panemune on the border with the Kaliningrad region. He was accused of committing crimes against humanity as well as war crimes which carries a sentence of life imprisonment.
A district court in Vilnius ruled on March 14 to hold Mel for two months.
Fourteen people were killed and hundreds sustained injuries when Soviet troops were storming the TV tower in Vilnius on January 13, 1991.
KGB officer Mikhail Golovatov was detained at a Vienna airport under a European order issued by Lithuania in July 2011. Golovatov was later freed. Lithuania and the European Commission sharply criticized Austria which argued that it lacked information to hand the suspect over to Lithuania.