Three Russian and Estonian citizens were handed prison sentences after being found guilty of defacing a Lithuanian monument to an anti-Soviet partisan leader while working for Russia's military intelligence agency (GRU).

Lithuania's public broadcaster LRT reported that Kaunas Regional Court ruled the men desecrated a monument to Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, a prominent commander of Lithuania's postwar resistance to Soviet occupation.

The statue is located at Merkinė Regional Museum in southern Lithuania and was vandalised with red paint in January 2024.

The court found that their actions amounted to aiding another state in "activities hostile to Lithuania".

Judge Daina Dyburienė on Tuesday said the court sentenced Nikolai Silin to a combined prison term of three years, Anton Patrakov to four years and Konstantin Venkov to two and a half years.

Prosecutors said the men acted as part of an organised group carrying out tasks assigned by Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, aimed at "destabilising the Lithuanian state". The court confirmed that the defendants had assisted the GRU in actions against Lithuania.

https://news.err.ee/1609893902/estonians-jailed-for-defacing-monument-on-orders-of-russian-intelligence