People, who saw how the nationalised bank was being torn apart and initiators of the bankruptcy are now retreating quietly, have been silenced using threats or promises. However, some of them do speak out.
The daily Respublika has interviewed Kazimieras Ramonas, former Director of the Credit Institutions' Supervision Department of the Bank of Lithuania, who was charged for hiding poor financial state of Bank Snoras and is now participating in legal proceedings. He has revealed that politicians, the president especially, were mostly displeased with Bank Snoras' investment in Lietuvos Rytas news outlet.
Through former Head of the Bank of Lithuania, Reinoldijus Sarkinas, and other members of the board, it had been attempted numerous times to wise up Bank Snoras so that it would silence the daily Lietuvos Rytas, which always criticised the infallible elect.
The new leadership of the Bank of Lithuania changed their tactics as the previous one failed. "I formed an opinion that the president was displeased and that she wasn't going to protect such a bank. Perhaps would even help deal with it if the bank seemed somehow suspicious. I have known the president since 1996 when our delegation went to Washington D.C. to negotiate on a loan for Lithuania. She participated in week-long sittings. We communicated frequently once she became the minister of finance. I thought we understood each other but I was wrong. Look in whose hands are the courts, the Prosecutor's Office, the police, the Special Investigation Service (STT), the Bank of Lithuania and read the theory of Marxism-Leninism. Now in the board of the Bank of Lithuania all people except Raimondas Kuodis are favourable to the Presidential Office," said Kazimieras Ramonas.
