Lithuanian lawmakers may vote on ousting President

LITHUANIA: Lithuania's countdown to EU status has been overshadowed by a scandal involving the President and Russia's mafia, writes Daniel McLaughlin

Anyone looking for the new EU entrants from the east to send a shiver of scandal through the Brussels establishment need look no further than Lithuania.

This week, in that usually quiet country by the Baltic, a parliamentary committee is expected to recommend that lawmakers vote on whether to oust President Rolandas Paksas over a host of allegations with more than a frisson of Cold War intrigue.

The former champion stunt pilot has been called a danger to national security for his ties to Mr Yuri Borisov, a slick, tanned and moustachioed Russian businessman accused of having links with the former KGB and of trading arms with rogue states. Mr Borisov (47) donated almost half a million dollars to Mr Paksas's election campaign and helped orchestrate his victory last year.

In return, Mr Paksas used his new presidential powers to grant Mr Borisov a Lithuanian passport, a document which will give the entrepreneur easy access to the EU once Lithuania joins the club with nine other states on May 1st.

The highest court in the country ruled that Mr Paksas (47) had violated the constitution in granting citizenship to his friend and tennis partner. The scandal has since snowballed, with the Lithuanian intelligence services bugging Mr Borisov's phone, and releasing transcripts of calls that many say prove he had an unhealthy hold over the highest office in the land, and could demand almost anything of Mr Paksas. In one call, he allegedly threatened to turn the President into a "political corpse" unless he was made a presidential adviser.

The suggestion that Mr Paksas was susceptible to blackmail was followed by others that he had dangerous links with organised crime and the Russian security service, the successor to the KGB, which still sends a chill through many people in a country that suffered under the heel of Soviet repression. Mr Paksas has found little support among the political élite in Vilnius, the quaint but vibrant capital of a country of 3.4 million people.

Despite being a former prime minister and mayor of Vilnius, he is an outsider to the city's chattering classes, and is seen as a crude populist and flash showman after an election campaign in which he targeted the country's poorest classes and flew a stunt plane under bridges.

He insists he has always been the target of a whispering campaign that has now grown to a clamour for his resignation from many prominent politicians, including the Prime Minister. They say his presence is besmirching the nation's image when it should be polishing up its act for May 1st.

Mr Paksas refuses to go, and has declined several invitations to speak to the parliamentary group investigating his case. He says he will fight to clear his name, and will face down the shadowy groups trying to topple him.

Mr Borisov, too, denies all charges ranged against him.

His Russian and Lithuanian passports have been seized, he is threatened with extradition, but is defiant.

"I will only leave in handcuffs," he says.