Based on the report, high priority goods and technologies, classified as battlefield items, were exported from Lithuania to Kaliningrad. Vičiūnai admitted to reporters to have transported the goods to Russia but denied knowledge about the sanctions.
Plungės kooperatinė prekyba, which makes food products from surimi, supplied various equipment to Vičiūnai-Rus factory in Sovetsk.
According to the report, last year the EU, the USA, the UK and Japan drafted a list of priority items found on the battlefield in Ukraine, which includes 50 sanctioned goods. These goods are prohibited to be exported to or transported through Russia in order to limit the aggressor’s ability to strengthen its military.
As reported previously, Vičiūnai Group is linked to Kaunas Mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis and his family. They had promised to sell the business in Russia amid the invasion of Ukraine, but this was not done for a long time. Yet this April it was announced that the Russian Government Commission on Control over Foreign Investments authorised the sale of Vičiūnai-Rus factory in Kaliningrad to an investor from Saint Petersburg.
According to the media, in April 2023, Lithuanian businesspeople, Vičiūnai-Rus Deputy Director General Rolanas Ozarinskas and Head of Supply Edgaras Pečiulis represented Russia’s food industry interests at a meeting with Cuba’s food industry minister in Moscow. After this revelation, there were calls in Lithuania to ban Vičiūnai Group from participating in public procurement tenders.