Lithuanian President's "hostile initiative against Russia" has failed.

In an effort to isolate Lithuania from Russia, President Dalia Grybauskaite initiated a plan to reduce the broadcast time of Russian-language channels. This "initiative" was seen as hostile by ethnic Russians in Lithuania and was rejected by the country's parliament.

Lithuanian president wants to sever ties with Russia.

On Tuesday (October 7), the Lithuanian Parliament rejected President Dalia Grybauskaite's initiative to cut by two-thirds the airtime of Russian-language channels to ensure that at least 90% of television programming broadcast daily is in the official languages ​​of the European Union.

According to opponents of the president's initiative, this move amounts to censorship and would violate the right to freedom of information. "It seems we consider our citizens uneducated and that you can't tell a false lie," said MP Birute Vesaite. Furthermore, this measure is pointless in the face of the booming development of internet and satellite television.

According to lawmakers opposing the president's "initiative," Lithuanian citizens have the right to freely choose the television channels they watch, and the government should not interfere under any pretext or justification.

They argued that the initiative was pointless because those who wanted to watch Russian channels could watch them online anytime they wanted. Some MPs even believed that Grybauskaite was blindly hostile to Russia in order to gain favor with the West.

Lithuania was once part of the Soviet Union, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it, along with two other Baltic states, separated from Russia. All three Baltic states—Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia—quickly joined NATO and the EU.

Relations between Russia and the three Baltic states have been strained recently as they have allowed a greater NATO presence in the Baltic region. NATO is also planning to open more military bases there despite strong opposition from Russia. The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that NATO's eastward expansion near Russia's borders threatens peace and stability.

Last month, Russia lodged a protest in Lithuania for allowing extremists to vandalize a monument to Soviet martyrs in the Lithuanian capital.

According to motthegioi.vn