„There is no personal bias here. The investigation was launched following a complaint I found when I came to the Ministry. I was obliged to carry out this investigation because if I had not done so, I would not have performed my duties. I did my duties,“ Kasčiūnas told Elta.
According to the Minister, Rupšys's accusations that he deliberately defamed the Armed Forces Commander were also changed. According to Kasčiūnas, the former Army Chief should not look for someone to blame but take stock of his mistakes.
„I find this strange. After all, if I do something wrong, I don't run away and blame someone else. I am trying to get my life in order, so I don't make mistakes. That's the whole lesson, I guess, in these cases,“ he said.
Kasčiūnas also stressed that the new Chief of Defence, Ramundas Vaikšnoras, is now trying to ensure that similar situations allowing officers to commit abuses do not arise again.
„We need to do everything possible to make sure that we do not have such situations where there is a shadow cast, and there are potential abuses in the system, and we need to clean up that system. And we are now cleaning it up – the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is cleaning up all these loopholes so that such things do not happen in the future,“ Kasčiūnas emphasised.
„As for all the mud-slinging, I would like to remind you that there was an internal complaint within the system, which was the basis for launching that investigation. It is a complaint about all the cases; I did not invent these cases; they exist,“ he added.
However, the Minister of National Defence does not want to comment in detail on the newly surfaced information about the services provided to Rupšys's spouse by the Military Medical Service.
„Let's leave it to the authorities to sort it out,“ he said laconically.
As „15min“ reported on Tuesday, in 2022, Rupšys' wife visited the army's medical service in Vilnius and Kaunas. She was provided with physiotherapy services and an individual exercise programme.
The Ministry of National Defence confirmed this to the news portal. According to the Ministry, this information is known. It has been passed on to the STT following an investigation carried out on the initiative of the current Minister of National Defence, Laurynas Kasčiūnas. According to the law, only soldiers can receive health services in the Military Medical Service.
Rupšys himself told Elta on Tuesday that this information, which has appeared in the public space, is not true. According to the retired general, the Ministry of Defence, with Laurynas Kasčiūnas at its head, should stop spreading slander and misinformation about him. Minister Kasčiūnas, the former army commander, is responsible for his name appearing in recent high-profile publications.
For his part, former Minister of National Defence Arvydas Anušauskas claims not to have been aware of all these circumstances. However, he said there is no doubt that someone is deliberately dosing the material handed over to law enforcement to create pressure.
ELTA recalls that Rupšys has been asked similar questions before. In early September, it was reported that the STT was also investigating his dental implants paid for by the army. For his part, he claimed that he had not done anything illegal.
In addition, last year, while he was still in charge of the army, the portal 15min reported that Rupšys had rented an apartment in Vilnius from his son, for which he had received a so-called „flat allowance“ of 445 euros. The public space started to discuss whether the general had confused public and private interests.
Rupšys argued to journalists that he was renting an apartment from his son because, in compliance with Lithuanian law, he lived in Vilnius only on working days. A subsequent reply from the army to the portal states that Rupšys has the right to rent from his son because he does not own any real estate in Vilnius and the surrounding areas.
After the scandal in the public space, the general decided to terminate the apartment's lease but stated that he did not feel he had caused any moral damage.
After assessing the information gathered about the rent of the then Commander of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, the High Official Ethics Commission (VTEK) did not investigate the possible confusion between public and private interests.
