Reports
Lithuania Weekly: Detention of Celofanas
During this reporting week, heated discussions were mainly accelerated by two cases. Firstly, a man carrying a bag with a Wagner group (Russian state-funded militia) badge was detained at Vilnius Airport. While the majority of social media users condemned him for wearing a terrorist badge, others found a way to criticize the officials and Lithuanian police, blaming them for inappropriate behavior or even of violating human rights. Another discussion burst out considering Lithuanians’ willingness to defend the country with a gun, if necessary. Yet again, numerous comments carrying anti-government narrative appeared online.
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Lithuania Weekly: Kidnapping of a girl in Kaunas
During this reporting period, the entire country closely followed an intense drama, namely the search for a missing 9-year-old girl. Fortunately, she has been found alive after a frantic two-day search by officers and hundreds of volunteers. Lithuanian police successfully carried out an operation to free the girl, who was kidnapped and held in a garage in Kaunas. Despite the show of public unity, a well-known anti-government and Kremlin-aligned actor, Antanas Kandrotas (Celofanas [Cellophane]), continued to fuel passions on Lithuanian social networks. Celofanas has repeatedly claimed that he has “non-public information” about the crime and that “police are hiding the real situation”, urging his audience not to trust police officers in general. Right before the victim’s suspected abductor was detained, Celofanas sparked an outpouring of hate by naming and publishing a photograph of a man on Facebook, alleging his involvement in the crime. Turned out that he was not related to the crime at all.
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Lithuania Weekly: Lithuanian Banks in the Target
Antanas Kandrotas, better known for his nickname Celofanas (Cellophane), convicted of scams and fraud, earlier this year announced his willingness to participate in the presidential elections. However, his decision came across many challenges, and it was not state institutions that decided to block his way to the elections, but private banks: they refused to open an election account for Cellophane, and without it no one can participate in the elections. During the reporting week, Celofanas alone posted 13 posts on his Facebook page, 10 of them were harshly criticizing the banks and actively broadcasting anti-government sentiments for his followers.
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