V. Bakas calls the interview of R. Bridikis, which took almost four hours, productive

“This is the deputy director of the VSD, who is responsible for all operations and investigations, unlike other officers who could say that they do not know one or the other circumstances, without his knowledge no process takes place in the department, of course, he provided valuable answers to the investigation.” I would say that the result of the survey is good,” V. Bakas told BNS on Wednesday evening.

He said that he could not yet say anything about the content of the conversation, because it is “completely classified information”, but said that he would work with the commission to make certain data available to the public.

“We will really try to present it (information – BNS) to the public, especially about what is related to the vulnerability of decision-makers, the risk to our national security, that’s what we talked about,” V. Bakas said.

Next week, the commission will invite Asta Skaisgirytė and Jarek Niewierowicz, the advisors of President Gitanas Nausėda, and it is also planned to invite VSD director Darius Jauniškis and President Gitanas Nausėdas to the interview.

“We are also preparing an invitation for the president himself,” V. Bakas confirmed.

G. Nausėda has said that he is ready to answer the commission’s questions in writing, he also denies that he asked the VSD to check his team members and rejects suspicions about possibly non-transparent financing of the campaign.

The Commission already heard R. Bridikis’s testimony in public last week, but the deputy director of the VSD said then that he could not answer many questions in an open session, because it was confidential information.

R. Bridikis then confirmed that he had received the list of G. Nausėda’s team from VSD General Director D. Jauniškis, which he handed over to his subordinate, Tomas Gailis, who later became a reporter, and instructed to check the persons on it.

He also said that it was a verbal order to check the persons on the list who “may be relevant to understand the threats, the risks to the participants in the process.”

When asked if other candidates were checked, R. Bridikis said that “the checks were not focused on a specific person, but on processes”.

Former and current heads of the prosecutor’s office, the Special Investigation Service, as well as the whistleblower who decided not to hide his identity, the former head of one of the VSD boards, T. Gailius, and several VSD officials have already testified to the commission.

T. Gailius said that he suspected that his managers might have committed a disciplinary violation or even a crime when they commissioned an inspection of G. Nausėda’s environment and possibly passed the inspection results on to third parties who do not have the right to work with classified information. That’s why T. Gailius said that he turned to politicians and became a speaker.

After this testimony, the VSD reiterated that they followed the law when checking G.Nausėda’s environment.

Intelligence representatives said they checked the teams of all presidential candidates, the speaker himself said that only G. Nausėda’s environment was checked, and R. Bridikis confirmed to him that the lists were received from G. Nausėda himself. The president categorically denies that he asked the VSD to check his team.

In the book “The Speaker and the President” published at the beginning of 2023, part of the content of which is based on the stories of T. Gailius, questions are also raised about the transparency of the financing of the election campaign of G. Nausėdas.