VSD: after the attacks in Russia, the threat level of a terrorist act in Lithuania remains low

As informed by the VSD, the “changing terrorism situation in Europe, last week’s terrorist attack in Russia and the possible impact on the security situation in Lithuania” were discussed at the working group meeting on Thursday to resolve issues of the fight against terrorism.

“At the meeting, it was established that there is currently no data on plans to carry out attacks in Lithuania, so the threat level of a terrorist act remains low,” VSD reported.

The meeting also discussed the trend of rapid immigration of citizens of Central Asian countries to Lithuania and the possible risk of the spread of radical Islamism as a result.

According to the Migration Department, the diaspora of expatriates from Central Asian countries has increased more than 10 times over the past three years – from 2 thousand to more than 23 thousand. Among them, about 8 thousand. came from Uzbekistan, about 6 thousand – from Kyrgyzstan, about 5.7 thousand. – from Tajikistan. Many come on work permits, less on study permits. For some of them, Lithuania is an intermediate country for further migration to Western Europe.

The VSD announced that it has identified persons with radical Islamist views in the stream of immigrants, several of them have been declared a threat to state security, and several others have been recommended not to issue visas or temporary residence permits in Lithuania.

According to the VSD, no persons intending to commit terrorist acts have been identified among those who arrived in Lithuania from Central Asian countries, but it is estimated that their growing diaspora creates conditions for the formation of closed communities in which radicalization processes are possible.

The conclusions and recommendations of the report of the United Nations Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee’s visit to Lithuania were also discussed at the meeting of the working group. The National Crisis Management Center will coordinate inter-agency efforts to develop a National Integrated Counter-Terrorism Strategy as recommended by UN experts.

Representatives of the Ministry of Defense, various ministries, services, the Police Department, the Center for Extreme Health Situations of the Military Defense Headquarters and other institutions participate in the working group to resolve the issues of the fight against terrorism.