VILNIUS - President Valdas Adamkus has expressed concern over the safety of Lithuanian citizens working or on business trips in the Kaliningrad exclave after a string of reports in recent weeks involving injuries and even a disappearance.
In the latest report, a Lithuanian working in the construction business in Kaliningrad was injured in unclear circumstances, the second citizen in the construction industry who has encountered problems. One businessman is still missing.
"We must make every effort to find out what happened to them," Adamkus told reporters July 9.
"First of all, the fate of the first one [missing businessman Stanislovas Jucius] is unknown. I am positive that the appropriate institutions 's both diplomatic and governmental 's are really not twiddling their thumbs," he said.
Stanislovas Jucius, 56, the chief executive of Roslitstroj, a construction company, went missing on April 18.
"He is an individual from our state and we must do everything to at least know where he is," the president said.
The Foreign Ministry on July 9 authorized the general consulate in Kaliningrad to approach local authorities for an explanation as to why no information has been released on the Lithuanian citizens in distress or under arrest.
Violeta Gaizauskaite, head of the ministry's public relations department, said that when foreign law enforcement agencies do not show any inclination to cooperate with the Lithuanian authorities, it is very difficult to lend assistance.
She said Lithuanian investors must give a serious assessment of the risk elements attached to doing business in one or another country.
At the end of June an attempt was made on the life of Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Juchnievic, who had been living in Svetlogorsk for 17 years. He manages a company that builds luxury homes by the Baltic Sea.
The attempted hit on the businessman was made in broad daylight. He sustained injuries to an arm and the stomach.
The Jucius case is ongoing, as the Foreign Ministry has requested information, prompting Russian prosecutors launched an investigation.
One possibility is that the businessman was kidnapped and killed to eliminate him from the profitable business of residential land development. Another theory holds that he might have been in a relationship with another man's woman.
In May, Kaliningrad Governor Georgy Boos said that Jucius' safety was in no danger and the probe into his disappearance would soon be completed.
There has been no more news about him in the two months since.
