Russia Concerned About Chechen Conference in Lithuania
Published:
23 February 2003 y., Sunday
Russia's Foreign Ministry has expressed concern over a conference on the Chechen situation that opened Friday in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said the conference represents what he called an expression of escalation of anti-Russian feelings in Lithuania that does not encourage constructive dialogue between the two countries.
The conference is entitled "The Chechen Problem as a Denial of Rights," is marking the 59th anniversary of Stalin's deportation of 600,000 Chechens from their homeland to Kazakhstan during World War II.
Soviet Authorities allowed the Chechen people to return to their homeland in the Caucasus during the de-Stalinization period that followed the dictator's death in 1953.
Chechnya declared independence from Russia in the early 1990's. Russian troops fought a three-year war in efforts to crush the movement before withdrawing in 1996. They swept back into Chechnya in 1999 and have since been bogged down in a guerrilla war which has cost thousands of lives.
Šaltinis:
VOA News
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė goes for a working visit to Brussels to attend an informal meeting of the European Council.
more »
President Dalia Grybauskaitė extended congratulations to President Valdis Zatlers and the people of Latvia on their national holiday - Independence Day.
more »
On 16 November in Brussels, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas took part in the joint meeting of European Union’s foreign and defence ministers with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
more »
Wednesday, November 11, President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė met with President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczyński.
more »
On November 5-6 meeting of the Baltic Chiefs of Defence Staffs of the Baltic States will be held in Nemenčinė, Gen. Ramanauskas Warfare Training Centre (Vilnius Region).
more »
The interview of Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas to the daily Die Presse about his country’s sensitive relations with Russia, about perspectives for Kiev and bad American PR in the antiballistic missile defence debate.
more »
Professor Vytautas Landsbergis, outstanding Lithuanian politician and cultural figure, is invited as a keynote speaker and will deliver a report on the Lithuanian contribution to European freedom and unification in 1988-1989.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania participating in her first session of the European Council strongly defends interests of the Baltic countries and other new Member States of the EU at the commencing discussion among the European leaders concerning the common position to be upheld in the upcoming world-wide meeting in Copenhagen on the issue of mitigation of consequences of climate change.
more »
Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas offers his most sincere condolences to the families of those who have lost their loved ones during the terrorist act in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on 28 October.
more »
President Dalia Grybauskaitė extended congratulations to President Abdullah Gül on the 86th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey.
more »