'How can you trust Russia?' Nervous Lithuanians sign up for border militia

 

Having a neighbor like Russia at the end of the street means 59-year-old Vytas Grudzinskas doesn't get much rest. "I can see the soldiers best at night," he says, pointing to a patch of green behind his neighbor's garden.

"They have a shooting range they use over there behind that field. In the afternoon, you can hear the guns," he said.

Grudzinskas has his own weapon, a machine gun, which he keeps locked in a cupboard, close at hand -- although his guard dog, a Maltese terrier, might be less effective in battle.

The small city of Kybartai where Grudzinska lives lies inside both NATO and the European Union but also along one of the world's hottest borders -- the Suwalki corridor. This tract of land, about 60 miles wide, is sandwiched between Russia's heavily fortified, nuclear-armed, Baltic bolthole of Kaliningrad and its ally, Belarus. The pass -- viewed by many analysts as a weak point within NATO -- is caught in a pincer grip between Kremlin troops. The fear is that if Ukraine fell, Russia would advance through it next, possibly cutting off the Baltic states in days.

New members of Lithuania's century-old militia, the Riflemen, are sworn in at a ceremony on Monday. Kalvarija, Lithuania

 

The scars of Soviet occupation run deep in this part of Europe. Tens of thousands of Lithuanians were forcibly deported to gulags in Siberia and the far north by the Soviets in the 1940s and 1950s. Almost 30,000 Lithuanian prisoners perished in the forced labor camps.

"My father was sent to Sakhalin in Russia's far west for 15 years," said Grudzinskas. "He ate grass the first year to survive."

So, when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Grudzinskas joined Lithuania's century-old volunteer militia -- the Riflemen -- and took up arms in his own backyard.

That means he's the first line of defense if the Kremlin's troops, stationed 60 feet away in the Russian exclave, put one foot on NATO soil.

"How can you trust Russia? With our history?" he asked.

"Of course, I'm scared. How could I not be?" he added. "My family is here. I built this house with my bare hands." 

Vytas Grudzinskas and a fellow volunteer are seen on a hill in the Suwalki Corridor.

 

The 103-year-old Riflemen militia has seen its numbers balloon since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, according to its commanding officer.

Currently there are about 12,000 volunteer members, said Egidijus Papeckys, commander of the Riflemen's 4th Regional Command. And that number is increasing each month by tenfold, he said.

Since the first days of the Ukraine war, the number of new recruits seeking to join each month has risen from 10 to 12 to more than 100.

New volunteers of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union attend a swearing in ceremony on Monday.

 

The militia's weapons are mainly donated by the Lithuanian armed forces and sourced by crowdfunding efforts.

At his headquarters in the city of Marijampole, deep in the Suwalki corridor, Papeckys shows off some of the arsenal at his unit's disposal, including assault rifles, handguns and grenade launchers.

The 51-year-old is also desperate to avoid a return to Russian rule. His father was sent to Siberia, as were his wife's relatives.

"We remember the Soviet occupation, and we do not like to be occupied any more. We are free people," Papeckys said.

At a swearing-in ceremony held on the 103rd anniversary of the Riflemen in the neighboring city of Kalvarija, new member Karolis Baranauskas says he was always interested in the organization but that the war in Ukraine called him to action. Although he was born in 1990, the year Lithuania became independent from the Soviet Union, he says that "every Lithuanian knows that Russia is a threat. The recent events prove that."

To better protect the Baltics, NATO has radically overhauled its defense planning in this part of the world, announcing ahead of a summit in Madrid this week that it would increase its presence in the region enough to repel any attack in real time, rather than sending in troops to recapture territory once it's been seized.

That will mean thousands more troops, which Lithuania would like to see based permanently around the small country's 621-mile-long borders with Belarus and Russia.

Deputy Minister of Defense Margiris Abukevicius concedes it could take two years for such troops to be in place. But he says there's now an understanding that military capabilities need a substantial upgrade around Suwalki and elsewhere. The corridor, also known as the Suwalki Gap, has always been a cause of worry, according to Abukevicius. It's understood to be a "weak point" by the Baltics and NATO.

"In the current situation we understand the vulnerability much clearer," he told CNN in an interview on Tuesday at the Ministry of Defense in Vilnius, the capital.

"I think NATO understands that and takes decisions," he said. "I really hope that NATO's summit this week will give a very strong response and a very clear direction where NATO's long-term adaptation should go."

At the same time, Lithuania says it has been fending off ongoing Russian cyberattacks on its state institutions and private sector in recent days following its decision last week to block some goods like grain and steel -- which are subject to EU sanctions -- from being transported by train into Kaliningrad. Although cyberattacks by Russian hackers are relatively common in Lithuania, Abukevicius says the blockade was the "trigger point."

"We are seeing an increase in activity at state institutions against some critical operators -- especially transport and the media," Abukevicius said.

During target practice at a shooting range nestled in the lush landscape of Marijampole, Grudzinskas and other members of Papeckys' unit aim their assault rifles during target practice, just as the Russian soldiers behind Grudzinskas' street often do.

Their shots momentarily shatter the quiet, but for now the fragile peace holds.

source

Chinese censors scrub internet after senior party official gives speech on timeline of zero-Covid in Beijing

Health workers take swab samples to be tested for Covid-19 at a makeshift testing site along a street in Beijing on May 11, 2022.

 

Chinese censors scrambled to delete what appears to be a misleading quote by a senior Communist Party official published in state media Monday, which claimed the "zero-Covid" policy would remain in place in Beijing "for the next five years," in an effort to tame an online backlash.

Beijing Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper for the Chinese capital, earlier reported that the city's party chief, Cai Qi, said Monday that "for the next five years, Beijing will resolutely implement Covid-19 pandemic control measures and uphold the 'zero-Covid' policy to prevent imported cases from coming in and domestic cases from rebounding."

The reported reference by Cai, who is a close ally of Chinese President Xi Jinping, to "the next five years" sparked a huge backlash on Chinese social media. In response, Beijing Daily removed the line, describing it as an "editing error" while leaving his other remarks about pandemic controls intact.

CNN reviewed the entire speech and while the published quote from Beijing Daily was misleading, Cai did discuss at length the possibility of keeping zero-Covid policies in place in the capital over the next five-year period.

The pandemic controls that would stay in place include routine PCR tests, strict entry rules, regular health checks in residential neighborhoods and public venues, as well as rigorous monitoring and testing for people entering and leaving Beijing, state media quoted Cai as saying.

"I have to rethink whether I should continue to stay in Beijing in the long term," one user wrote on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform.

"For the next five years...what is the point of being alive even," another user said.

Weibo has since banned the hashtag "for the next five years" from its platform.

In early May, Xi doubled down on the zero-Covid policy in a meeting of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, the country's top decision-making body, ordering officials and all sectors of society to adhere to the "decisions and plans" of the leadership.

US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said in an online Brookings Institution event on June 16 that he expected China to keep its zero-Covid policy in place until "the beginning months of 2023," based on signals from the Chinese government.

For months, cities across China -- including Beijing and Shanghai -- have been placed under full or partial lockdown because of the strict zero-Covid policy, wreaking havoc on economic activity and hurting the job market. In May, the unemployment rate for people aged 16-24 hit a record high 18.4%.

China continues to shut down entire communities and cities over just a handful of Covid cases. All positive cases and close contacts are sent to government quarantine.

China reported 23 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases nationwide on Sunday, with Beijing and Shanghai each recording four cases, according to the country's National Health Commission.

source

7 takeaways from the fourth day of the January 6 hearings

 

The latest hearing before the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection revealed new details Tuesday about how former President Donald Trump pressured state officials to help him overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The panel featured testimony from three Republican officials who were all on the receiving end of Trump's outreach after the election: Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, his deputy Gabe Sterling and Arizona House of Representatives Speaker Rusty Bowers.

Like previous hearings, these officials testified about their unwillingness to participate in legally dubious schemes that would undermine the election, including efforts to subvert the Electoral College with fake pro-Trump electors.

Here are key takeaways from Tuesday's hearing:

Republican witnesses tie Trump directly to fake electors effort

Multiple witnesses told the committee that Trump was personally involved in the effort to put forward slates of fake electors in key battleground states -- a key part of the broader effort to overturn Biden's legitimate election victory.

CNN has previously reported on the role that key Trump allies, including his former attorney Rudy Giuliani, played in overseeing the effort but witnesses revealed new details Tuesday about how the former President himself was not only aware of the push, but seemingly endorsed it.

Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, testified that she received a call from Trump and conservative lawyer John Eastman after the election about helping to assemble the electors.

"In this effort, what did the President say when he called you?" an investigator with the committee asked McDaniel, according to video of her testimony played during the hearing.

"Essentially, he turned the call over to Mr. Eastman, who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing change the result of any dates," McDaniel responded.

"I think more just helping them reach out and assemble them but .... my understanding is the campaign did take the lead and we just were helping them in that role," she added.

Bowers also told the committee that her received a call from Trump and Giuliani during which they urged him to go along with a plan to put forward illegitimate, pro-Trump electors from the state.

"I told them I did not want to be used as a pawn," Bowers said on Tuesday, recalling what he told Giuliani and Trump on the November 22 phone call.

The Arizona House speaker also testified that Giuliani acknowledged what he was proposing had never been done before but continued to push him anyway. That also came up in other conversations with Eastman and others, Bowers said.

Committee reveals new details how congressional Republicans helped Trump's efforts to overturn election

Tuesday's hearing featured new details about two congressional Republicans played a role in Trump's sprawling efforts to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.

The first was Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, who called Bowers on the morning of January 6, 2021, asking him to support decertification of his state's electors for Biden.

"I said I would not," Bowers testified on Tuesday.

The second occurred several hours later, minutes before then-Vice President Mike Pence gaveled in the joint session of Congress to certify the electoral votes. According to text messages obtained by the committee, an aide to GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin asked an aide to Pence how Johnson could hand-deliver him the fake slates of Trump electors from Michigan and Wisconsin, which had not been sent to the National Archives. Pence's aide responded that Johnson should "not give that to him."

Both the effort to decertify Biden electors and put forward fake Trump electors were part of the Trump team's scheme to stop the congressional certification of the election on January 6. The role that Trump's allies in Congress played have been of interest of interest to the committee, which has subpoenaed five House GOP members, including Biggs and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

The House Republicans have not complied with the subpoenas and have denounced the panel's investigation.

The committee's chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, told CNN's Manu Raju during a recess in Tuesday's hearing that the committee has "not yet" reached out to Johnson amid the revelations of his involvement in the fake elector scheme.

"The committee hasn't made a decision" on whether to call him to testify, Thompson said.

Witnesses describe how Trump's lies had serious consequences -- including threats

The committee's hearing underscored how the lies about the election spread by Trump and his team spiraled into multi-faceted disasters for the state officials forced to grapple with them.

All of the witnesses who appeared at Tuesday's hearing talked about the serious repercussions they faced as a result of the false claims that Trump and his team put forward. That included pressure to help in the effort to overturn the election, the repeated attempts to try to debunk the claims and the threats they faced from pro-Trump supporters for refusing to go along with Trump's efforts.

"No matter how many times senior Department of Justice officials, including his own attorney general, told the President that these allegations were not true, President Trump kept promoting these lies and put pressure on state officials to accept them," committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, said during Tuesday's hearing.

The stories were similar in many respects to the pressure campaign that Pence faced from Trump and his supporters before January 6 -- and the threats he faced from rioters at the Capitol.

Bowers delivered emotional testimony about "disturbing" protests outside his home. Bowers welled up as he discussed the impact protests at this house had on his wife and his daughter, who was at home gravely ill at the time and was "upset by what was happening outside." And he read passages from his personal journal about friends who had turned on him.

Bowers also described how Trump and his team wouldn't take no for an answer and continued to pressure him to support decertifying the state's electors up to the morning of January 6.

Raffensperger described the attacks that his wife faced after the election, which he said he suspected was an attempt to pressure him to quit. Schiff cited Raffensperger's book, in which he wrote, "I felt then and still believe today that this was a threat."

Trump supported a Republican primary challenge to Raffensperger, GOP Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, as part of his campaign to oust the Republicans who opposed his lies about the election. But Raffensperger won his primary in May.

Watch Brad Raffensperger explain why Trump lost Georgia

 

Republican officials take the lead testifying against Trump

Yet again, the Democratic-run January 6 committee turned to Republican officials to make their case against Trump. In fact, the majority of the in-person witnesses so far have been Republicans.

Tuesday's hearing featured in-person testimony from three conservative Republicans who endorsed Trump in 2020. The committee also played deposition clips from two other GOP officials: Michigan State Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler.

They all provided damning testimony against Trump, describing how he repeatedly tried to twist their arms and cajole them to overturn the results. They also described the threats and pressure they faced from Trump supporters who believed his election lies and protested outside their homes and offices, and bombarded them with calls and text messages.

One of the main GOP gripes about the committee is that it's stacked with Democrats. And it is, largely because Republican leadership refused to participate last summer. But so far, the most damaging testimony has come from Republicans and members of Trump's inner circle.

Rusty Bowers, Arizona House Speaker, testifies during Tuesday's hearing on the January 6th investigation in the Cannon House Office Buildingin Washington, DC.

 

Top Arizona Republican refutes Trump in real-time

Bowers said under oath Tuesday that Trump lied about him in a press release that came out shortly before the hearing started, where Trump claimed Bowers told him in November 2020 that he believed the election was rigged.

In the statement, Trump attacked Bowers and described a call they had after the election, claiming, "during the conversation, he told me that the election was rigged and that I won Arizona." Trump added, "Bowers should hope there's not a tape of the conversation."

Under questioning from Schiff, Bowers confirmed that he "did have a conversation with the president, but that certainly isn't it."

"There are parts of it that are true, but there are parts of it that are not," Bowers said of Trump's statement. "...Anywhere, anyone anytime who has said that I said the election was rigged -- that would not be true."

The comments were a real-time refutation of the former President. While Trump can say whatever he wants in a press release, Bowers is required to testify truthfully before Congress, and could be prosecuted for lying under oath.

The back-and-forth harkens back to Trump's infamous conversations with former FBI Director James Comey in 2017, where Trump lied about what they discussed and raised the specter of "tapes." Like Bowers, Comey testified to Congress, under penalty of perjury, about the conversations with Trump.

Schiff yet again dissects troubling Trump calls

It was striking to watch Schiff dissect troubling Trump phone calls with Georgia election officials, where he tried to convince him to ignore Biden's victory and interfere with the vote count so he could prevail.

These exchanges stood out because it's not the first time Schiff highlighted Trump's misdeeds that were captured in a phone call. Remember: Schiff was the lead investigator in Trump's first impeachment, which revolved around a 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where Trump pressured Zelensky to publicly announce that his country was investigating Biden for corruption.

In that situation, the White House released a transcript of the call, but there was no audiotape. This time around, the January 6 committee played the recordings of Trump's transition-era conversations with Raffnesperger and Frances Watson, a top investigator from the Georgia secretary of state's office.

Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election -- that's precisely what Schiff warned about during Trump's first impeachment trial, where he was acquitted. That trial was all about Trump's efforts to undermine the integrity of the election by soliciting foreign interference. These January 6 hearings are all about exposing Trump's efforts to enlist fellow Americans in his campaign to subvert the results.

'I lost it': Georgia election official on threatening tweet that led him to address Trump

 

Emotional testimony highlights victims of Trump's disinformation

Later in the day, the committee heard from Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, who were election workers in Atlanta during the 2020 election. Trump, Giuliani and other GOP figures put them both at the center of their unhinged lies about massive voter fraud in Georgia.

Coverage of Trump's presidency often focused on his words and lies. But the emotional and deeply personal testimony from Moss and Freeman flipped the script, and showed human toll of Trump's lies.

They described in devastatingly terms how Trump's lies essentially destroyed their lives.

Moss said she felt "helpless," gained 60 pounds, and stopped giving out her business card because "I don't want anyone knowing my name." Her mother said she gets "nervous when I have to give food orders," because someone who believes Trump's lies might recognize her name. She said she felt "homeless" while she lived in hiding for two months, after the FBI told her she wasn't safe at home.

"I have lost my sense of security, all because of a group of people, starting with (Trump) and his ally Rudy Giuliani, decided to scapegoat me, and my daughter, Shaye, to push lies about how the election was stolen," Freeman said in a videotaped deposition, a clip of which was played during Tuesday's hearing.

source