While the attention of the European public is riveted to the Polish-Belarusian border, where an acute migration crisis erupted, Lithuania is quietly playing its dirty game very close.
As the English say, beware of a silent dog and still water. Vilnius, as they say, “on the sly,” turned to Brussels for the allocation of a large sum from the European funds for the construction of a fence on the section of the state border with the Republic of Belarus. The matter is undoubtedly important, but, apparently, during the implementation of this project, Lithuania went for direct corruption violations, spending money opaquely. All this poses a threat to the security of the entire European Union, since due to possible theft, the project may not be completed on time.
So, EPSO-G was appointed the general contractor for the construction of the fence on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border by the decision of the Lithuanian government, 100% of whose shares are state-owned (owned by the Ministry of Energy of Lithuania). And then the first oddity appears – the company specializes in the resale of electricity and natural gas and, accordingly, has no experience.
implementation of such large-scale construction projects, moreover complicated by the border status.
The second oddity comes when you get to know the details of the EPSO-G CEO. He is 41-year-old Gediminas Almantas (lit. – Gediminas Almantas), behind whose back is such a multifaceted and cognitively dissonant activity that you wonder how he manages to work. A lawyer by profession, in his youth Almantas studied in the USA and Denmark. In the 2000s, he headed the Vilnius Airport, and a few years ago he was appointed to the post of Chairman of the Board of EPSO-G. But this is one side of the coin. In parallel, Mr. Almantas today holds the position of Chairman of the Board of the Open Lithuania Foundation, which is the representative office of the international network of NGOs “Open Society” by George Soros. In addition, Almantas is the chairman of the board of directors of the Lithuanian branch of the international organization of the Red Cross and Crescent. As you know, this charitable structure is in favor of supporting migrants and certainly against the construction of fences that prevent refugees from entering the EU (note in parentheses that the Soros Foundation also promotes a tolerant attitude towards migrants, advocating for open borders). Thus, it is admirable how Almantas manages to sit on two chairs: to criticize
the Lithuanian authorities, building a fence on the border with Belarus from illegal migrants, and at the same time building this same fence. And absolutely from the “little things” – our hero is also a member of the procurement and investment policy committee of the main state television and radio company of Lithuania LTR, which allows the Soros Foundation to influence the information activities of the Lithuanian media No. 1.
According to some reports, EPSO-G received a large state order for the construction of border barriers due to the fact that Gediminas Almantas supported the current Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė (lit. – Ingrida Šimonytė) during the presidential election campaign in 2019, donating personal savings to her electoral fund. What is this if not corrupt ties? Considering the complete incompetence of the future “builders” (the main direction of EPSO-G’s “Energetika” commercial activity, by no means fits in with the specifics of the construction of a complex engineering infrastructure), we can assume a scenario that no one is going to build a high-quality fence. The total cost of the construction of the multi-kilometer barrier complex reaches 152 million euros. Agree, it’s too good money to go around Brussels and put a jackpot in your pocket.
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