Ričardas Malinauskas Looks for Clear Arguments Regarding Kapčiamiestis: I Want to Hear What Will Be There

Vilius Narkūnas

 

“Druskininkai Mayor Ričardas Malinauskas says that he lacks clear arguments from the central government as to why it was decided to establish a military training ground in Kapčiamiestis. According to him, soldiers can be trained in other places as well.

 

“First of all, I would like to hear what will be there. If this is a training ground, it is a place for training and rehearsals. So, it will not be a barracks with 10 thousand soldiers, soldiers, etc. It is simply a place where people come to train. So what difference does it make where it is? Does it necessarily have to be done in such a forest massif – five reserves and all sorts of other things. Sacrificing that entire massif just for the sake of the logic of a training ground is not possible,” R. Malinauskas said in the program “ELTA kraštas”.

 

“Again, if these are defensive positions, then we stop talking about one thing, and let's do it as it is. If we do that, then again, why do it in those swamps and between those lakes,” he said.

 

The mayor of Druskininkai municipality, which borders Lazdijai district, where a new training ground is planned, also disagrees with the argument that the residents of the region are supposedly used to the sounds of military exercises that can be heard from the Goža training ground in Belarus.

 

“To say that they are shooting, now we will shoot from 10 kilometers away, somehow (it seems – ELTA) is not very serious to me,” R. Malinauskas noted.

 

The mayor also criticized the fact that there are no clear arguments from the members of the Seimas National Security and Defense Committee (NSGK) as to why Kapčiamiestis was chosen for the new training ground.

 

“I think they should at least come out and say that we have received all the information, we guarantee that there are serious studies and other possibilities,” he said.

 

At the end of January, Dainius Gaižauskas, a representative of the Lithuanian Peasants, Greens and Christian Families Union (LVŽKŠS) parliamentary faction in the parliamentary NSGK, stated that he did not hear specific arguments at a closed meeting as to why Kapčiamiestis was chosen for the establishment of the training ground.

 

True, the chairman of the Seimas NSGK, a social democrat, Rimantas Sinkevičius, stated that he had known the answer regarding Kapčiamiestis for a long time. As the politician explained, a table was presented at a meeting of the State Defense Council (VGT) in which Kapčiamiestis and the territory intended for the development of the Jurbarkas-Tauragė training ground most met the necessary criteria.

 

R. Malinauskas emphasized that he would oppose it if the military training ground currently planned to be established in Lazdijai were decided to be expanded to the territory of the Druskininkai municipality.

 

“If my word meant anything, I would be very categorically against it,” the mayor said.

 

ELTA reminds that last December, the VGT made a decision to establish a brigade-sized Kapčiamiestis training ground in Lazdijai municipality. In addition, it was decided that the area of ​​the training ground in Tauragė would be doubled, expanding its territory to Jurbarkas municipality.

 

However, this decision by the authorities caused outrage in the local community, and a protest action was held.

 

The brigade-sized training ground is intended to be established in order to respond to the modernization of the army, the growing number of conscripts, the developing national division, and the growing number of allied forces.”

 

Still trying. Let the pigs into the house, and they will climb onto the table.