Sources have already announced that it is Eduardas Manovas, a Conservative from Šiauliai.
„We have contacted the prosecutor's office to confirm the name of the person who has appeared in the public domain and whether that identity is that of the man.
If it is, we will take appropriate action because the person in question is a member of the party.
If we receive confirmation from the prosecutor's office that this is the person in question, we will expel him from the party,“ Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė said.
According to her, Manovas has been a member of the Conservative Party since 2005. The interim leader of the TS-LKD confirmed that she had been in contact with Manovas.
„I have been in contact with him – he is also an active member of the Union of Exiles, at events, at some public meetings. But not that I would say that he is of special interest or that he asks questions, no, but that you notice that he is there – yes,“ the TS-LKD representative explained.
„I have been in contact with him – he is also an active member of the Union of Exiles, at events, at some public meetings. But I would say that he was of special interest or asking many questions, no, but you would notice that he was there, yes,“ the TS-LKD representative explained.
According to Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, the party has not had any suspicions about his intentions so far.
„Since he was not the most active member of the branch but one of those who took part in the activities, it is possible that he also ran for the city council,“ the interim party leader explained.
„I have been in the party since 2001, but I don't know all of the party members,“ said Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, adding that she had known Manovas for about 15 years when she started to work more actively with organisations of exiles.
She said that if it turns out that Manovas may have spied for Russia, it would be „a matter of minutes and hours“ before he was expelled from the TS-LKD party ranks.
While Laurynas Kasčiūnas and Saulius Skvernelis, who served on the Seimas Committee on National Security and Defence (NSGK) in the last term, said that they were aware of this situation, Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė noted that the party did not have this information.
„From what I understand, this information was disclosed to those who have the duty and the right to know, the members of the NSGK; I understand that this is restricted information that cannot be shared and sharing this kind of information is treated as a violation, so we didn't have this information,“ she assured the politician.
On Monday, Artūras Urbelis, Chief Prosecutor of the Organised Crime and Corruption Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office, informed that the law enforcement authorities had concluded the pre-trial investigation into espionage against Lithuania.
According to the prosecutor, in January of this year, law enforcement found that the person who allegedly gathered information in cooperation with the Russian GRU (General Staff of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation) was a member of the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) party.
According to law enforcement, the person suspected of espionage is a man who collected information on political parties, state institutions and the state's economic life and is currently in detention.
However, as the prosecutor's office announced, there is no evidence that the man may have collected and disposed of secret information.
Prosecutor Urbelis stated that the suspect had the opportunity to communicate with TS-LKD leaders and other party members.
The news portal Delfi.lt, citing sources, reports that the suspect is Eduardas Manovas, an 82-year-old former Conservative who participated in the 2011 municipal elections with TS-LKD.
