13/10/2023 | 10:26:16 Thank you. Dear President, dear colleagues, I invite us to see the facts as they are. Mr Putin has been continuously in power since the year 2000. He has served two consecutive four-year terms between 2008 and will have completed two consecutive six-year terms between 2012 and 2024. Changes made to the Russian Constitution enacted in July 2020 would allow him to remain in office as president until 2036, an overall period of 36 years. Dear colleagues, 36 years. We have often, in this Assembly... 11/10/2023 | 16:22:27 Thank you. Dear president, dear colleagues, it is my first time as an MP here in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. This is my first cadency here and I must say it is a very hard one. It is a cadency filled with horrors of war. War in Europe, now war in the Middle East. Hamas, as an internationally recognised terrorist organisation, launched a massive attack on the citizens of Israel by infiltrating terrorist into communities in the south as well as by launching extensive... 23/06/2023 | 12:32:42 Madam Speaker, Dear Colleagues, Before coming to Strasbourg, I booked my flight and my hotel on a website. On my way here, I was actually checking the news very regularly. During this week, well, actually being physically in France, I did actually engage with the most pressing matters back home in Lithuania. All of that is thanks to ever-present access to the internet and the digital skills which I have acquired. To know that not all of us have the same access to learn, to study, to connect... 20/06/2023 | 16:37:51 Dear Madam Speaker, dear colleagues, The rigged presidential elections of August 2020 have shown the true character of the repressive regime of Mr Aleksandr Lukashenko. Turning Belarus into an open-air prison, its human rights have been reduced to nothing. And it is now more clear than ever that because of the actions of the last dictator of Europe, because of the system he created, thousands of Belarusians had no other option than to leave their country. And mostly to Poland and to the... 27/04/2023 | 18:02:14 Thank you, dear president, honourable colleagues, First, I have to say thank you to Mr Emanuelis ZINGERIS for initiating this relevant debate and thanks to all the colleagues who are participating here this evening. I personally can remember my visit in July last year, the chance to first hand hear from the President of Moldova, of the Moldovan parliament, about the challenges that they are facing. And Moldava is facing multiple crises and increasing direct threats to instability, as well as... 27/04/2023 | 16:18:03 Thank you, dear President, dear honourable guests, I want to thank for rapporteur for the brilliant work done and we all know that today we are all witnesses of a painful history repeating. Deportations of innocent people from countries occupied by Russia 70 years ago are happening once again in Ukraine. There are numerous credible sources, including the International Criminal Court, and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, who have called attention to Russia's... 28/04/2022 | 12:41:35 Thank you. Chair, Dear colleagues, Family separated, people lost, children dead, parents missing, sons shot, daughters raped, E-40 highway shooting, abduction and torture of civilians in Kherson, torture chambers in Trostyanets', mass torture in Makariv, killings of civilians in Chernihiv, Bucha. I'm sure you all have seen photos. You have read what Russian soldiers have done. But just try to imagine the pain that each and every one of these kids and parents and all citizens and people have... 26/04/2022 | 10:49:15 Thank you. Dear Chair, Dear colleagues, There has been a constant co-operation between the Council and the European Union in an attainment and promotion of your common goals, and defending democracy, human rights and the rule of law throughout your organisation's existence. This co-operation is underpinned not only by the existence of common goals, but also by the experience and specialisation of our Council of Europe in these matters. This co-operation is even more necessary in the face of... 15/03/2022 | 17:03:07 Mr President, Dear colleagues, I am a child of the 90s and in Lithuania that is quite special. I was born just a month after the restitution of our independence. This meant I did not experience Soviet occupation despite the fact that on the cover of my birth certificate still shines the Soviet symbol of the hammer and sickle. This also meant, that while my grandparents and parents lived through multiple episodes of war and occupation, I, during my 30 years did not really have to consider the... 30/09/2021 | 16:04:23 Thank you, Chair. Dear colleagues, I want to thank the rapporteur and especially colleagues in the Migration Committee for intensive and hard work finding a well-balanced approach regarding this report. I have no doubt that today in the Assembly we will reach a common position sending a clear and hopefully unanimous message to the Belarusian regime which is instrumentalising migration pressures on the borders of Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. The recent migration influx to Lithuania is a...