Twenty former members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) are currently serving in the Lithuanian parliament and two of them declared this past affiliation in their candidate questionnaires filled in before the elections, the 15min online news site reported on Tuesday.
There are former CPSU members in almost all political groups in the Seimas: five in the Democrats “For Lithuania” group, four among the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (HU-LCD), the Farmers and Greens (LFGU), and the Social Democrats (LSDP) each, two in the Liberal Movement’s group, and one in the Freedom Party’s group.
15min’s investigative journalism team has found the personal files of 12 current MPs among CPSU and Komsomol documents stored in the Lithuanian Special Archive.
These are the HU-LCD’s Kestutis Masiulis and Algis Strelciunas, Vilija Targamadze, Algirdas Stoncaitis and Zigmantas Balcytis of “For Lithuania”, the LFGU’s Antanas Vinkus, Dainius Kepenis, Laima Nagiene, Rimante Salaseviciute and Algimantas Dumbrava, Social Democrat Liudas Jonaitis, and the Freedom Party’s Arturas Zukauskas.
The remaining former CPSU members were identified through interviews with MPs selected based on their age or work experience.
These are HU-LCD’s Antanas Cepononis ir Kazys Starkevicius, Social Democratic MPs Rasa Budbergyte, Vidmantas Kanopa ir Algirdas Sysas, Liberal MPs Jonas Varkalys and Ricardas Juska, and Algirdas Butkevicius of “For Lithuania”.
Source: BNS
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