Of course everybody wanted to hear about the war and who I thought had started it. Everyone understood how the Russians could be causing provocations. The Lithuanians have had to cope with several oil pipeline stoppages, the last permanent, when Yukos's oil refinery at Mazeikiai was sold to the Poles in defiance of the Russians. But they are still dependent on Russian gas, and will become more so when the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant finally closes in 2009.
So it was not surprising to see the Georgian flag with a black ribbon (a common combination in other places) outside the Research Centre for Genocide and Resistance on Didzioji St, near where the Jewish ghetto had been.
The plaque outside the Town Hall might have been comforting once to Lithuania. On the bottom panel it says:
Anyone who would choose Lithuania as an enemy has also made an enemy of the United States of America. George W Bush, President of the US, Vilnius City Hall, November 23rd, 2002
Will the US really go to the aid of small countries on the boundary of Russia?
