The Chernyakhovsk City Court liquidated the Association of Teachers of the Lithuanian Language Educational NPO on the regional Ministry of Justice’s claim on June 27. The formal reason was an inconsistency in the organization's documents. Alexei Bartnikas, the organization’s former chairman, told the Russky Zapad (‘Russian West’) Regional Media Outlet about this.
Alexei Bartnikas told journalists that he would not appeal the court's decision. At the same time, he said that there was a need to study the Lithuanian language in the region: about 10 thousand native speakers lived there.
At the same time, Maxim Makarov, executive director of the Russian Community of Kaliningrad Oblast, in his blog, accused Bartnikas of collusion with Lithuanian special services. Makarov said that the association was sponsored by the Lithuanian authorities in order to "raise Russian children as a pro-Lithuania fifth column." In addition, he accused the organization of LGBT propaganda.
The Association existed since 1995. Its members organized events in support of the Lithuanian cultural heritage, held academic competitions for schoolchildren, children's music festivals, and supported cooperation between educational institutions of the region and Lithuania.
At the end of June, the Kaliningrad authorities demolished a memorial plaque to Lithuanian philosopher Vidunas. A plaque to the Lithuanian philosopher hung on the house in Sovetsk where he lived in the 1940s. The administration’s press relations service did not answer 7x7’s correspondent why it had been removed.
The memorial was demolished after Lithuania banned the transportation of sanctioned goods, including construction materials, cement, and metals, to Kaliningrad Oblast. Governor Anton Alikhanv called it "an attempt to hit the region hard."
