Algirdas Paleckis


Algirdas Paleckis is a Lithuanian diplomat, politician, columnist.

Biography

Algirdas Paleckis was born on May 20, 1971, in Bern, Switzerland to a family of Soviet diplomat Justas Vincas Paleckis.
In 1994 Paleckis graduated from Vilnius University with a master's degree in journalism and international relations.

Career

From 1997 to 2001 A. Paleckis was the 1st secretary at Lithuania's Permanent Mission to the EU in Brussels.
From 2001 to 2003 he was the Head of West European Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania.
From 2007 to 2008 he worked as a Vice-Mayor of capital city Vilnius.
In 2008 he founded the Frontas Party and was its leader until November 2014.
Currently A. Paleckis is a political analyst.
He is fluent in Lithuanian, English, French, Russian and German.

Criminal prosecution

In 2011, Lithuanian authorities had initiated prosecution against Paleckis for his alleged denial of Soviet aggression against Lithuania. As part of his journalistic research, Paleckis claimed he had found several witnesses and ballistic assessments that seemed to indicate that there were secret snipers on the roof near the Vilnius TV centre who were shooting civilians. He then went on to state publicly that “it appears that in January 1991 our own people were shooting at their natives”. A Vilnius court had vindicated Paleckis in January 2012. The prosecution had appealed, and Paleckis was sentenced to a fine of 10,400 litas on June 12, 2012.
He was arrested again in 2018 on suspicion of spying for Russia. As of March 2020 he has been jailed without conviction for more than 500 days. The Lithuanian authorities argue against granting bail on the grounds that Paleckis has lived in Moscow, has connections there and could flee from the country.

Electoral history

2016 Lithuanian parliamentary election, single-member constituency of Naujoji Vilnia