Tsapkala and Balkunets attacked a Lithuanian politician who helped Belarusians after 2020 and contributed to the case opened by the prosecutor in The Hague

Valer Tsapkala, screenshot from YouTube broadcast

Valer Tsapkala and Dzmitry Balkunets appealed to the Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT) and the Prosecutor's Office of Lithuania with a call to investigate the activities of the organization "Centre for Law and Democracy". The center was founded by former chairman of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania, Dainius Žalimas, and existed from 2021 to 2025. Tsapkala and Balkunets claim that in its four years of existence, the organization received about 200,000 euros from Lithuanian and European structures for Belarusian issues, and demand an investigation into how these funds were spent.

In 2024, Dainius Žalimas was a candidate for President of Lithuania from the Freedom Party, and is now a Member of the European Parliament. He chaired the Constitutional Court of Lithuania from 2014 to 2021.

Valer Tsapkala and Dzmitry Balkunets act on behalf of the Belarusian Democratic Forum they founded. They also addressed their appeal to the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda.

"There are no grounds for this, it's ridiculous," Žalimas commented on the accusations on the Lithuanian TV channel TV3. He claims that the project was not implemented by him, but by the European Humanities University.

Therefore, he does not have documents to explain what the center was doing and how the funds were spent. Žalimas himself, he says, was just an employee who received a salary.

Žalimas' wife works at EHU. Ingrida Danelė-Žalimienė heads the Department of Social Sciences there. Previously, she worked as the chancellor of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania during the time Žalimas chaired it. In 2024, public reaction was sparked by the fact that she received money from the Freedom Party for planning Žalimas' presidential campaign. After media outcry, Žalimas called that contract a mistake, and his wife returned more than 10,600 euros to the party.

The money that, as Tsapkala claims, Žalimas received as part of the "Centre for Law and Democracy" project, is small by Lithuanian standards — 30,000 euros. If divided by four years of the organization's activity, Žalimas' salary was approximately four times less than the average in Vilnius, not to mention the salary level of a top lawyer.

The chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Lithuanian Seimas, social democrat Remigijus Motuzas, is inclined to believe Žalimas. "I think he is not the kind of person who would use those funds for personal gain. First of all, in such situations, there are always provocateurs who seek to devalue and sow discord," Motuzas diplomatically hinted.

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania and member of the Seimas foreign affairs committee Audronius Ažubalis, a conservative, on the contrary, believes that there is no smoke without fire and "it is in Žalimas' own interest to clarify what actually happened there." Ažubalis believes that EHU had "many financial abuses, specifically with donor money."

Tsapkala and Balkunets demand that Lithuanian law enforcement agencies check "whether the public institution 'Centre for Law and Democracy', founded and headed by the former chairman of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania, lawfully used the received funding – almost 200,000 euros."

"We consider it indecent for any organization or person to profit from the suffering of the Belarusian people caused by repression. More than half a million Belarusian citizens were forced to leave their country, many lost their freedom and property. It is outrageous that certain individuals use the name of the Belarusian people and, possibly, personal connections to obtain grants. Moreover, these funds are often spent on fictitious projects that ultimately strengthen, rather than weaken, authoritarianism in Belarus," says the former head of the High-Tech Park.

Tsapkala and Balkunets ask to evaluate "what specific results were achieved using these funds and how they contributed to the declared goals; whether the funds were used efficiently, proportionately, and in accordance with applicable legal and financial norms; and whether there was any improper use and distribution of funds for personal enrichment."

"It is very important that the public of Lithuania, the EU, and Belarus be fully informed about all projects financed by various funds, with transparent results and an objective assessment of their effectiveness. We believe that all funds received through imitation of activity and submission of fictitious reports should be returned to the budgets of the grant-making organizations," stated Tsapkala, who has often criticized leaders of the Belarusian opposition in recent years.

In particular, he advised US President Joe Cole's special envoy "not to meet with Tsikhanouskaya."

Tsapkala himself, according to him, currently works as an advisor to the Albanian Investment Corporation. As Tsapkala explains, this structure was recently created to manage all state assets and "carries out investment activities both with the involvement of foreign investments and the state carries out investment activities through it."

Valer Tsapkala entered politics in 2020 when he ran for president. Before that, he worked as the head of the High-Tech Park and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus. He is a graduate of MGIMO.

His current political ally is Dzmitry Balkunets, who lived in Moscow until 2020 and served as an expert on Belarus for Russian publications. Anatol Liabedzka once called Balkunets "a populist and provocateur." Earlier, Balkunets appealed to the prosecutor's office and police of Lithuania asking to investigate the activities of Anton Matolka's "Belaruski Hajun" project, as well as the activities of Franak Viachorka. Lithuanian authorities did not do so.

Павялічыць

Dzmitry Balkunets (right). Photo from social networks

Another Member of the European Parliament, Petras Gražulis, latched onto the appeal by Tsapkala and Balkunets. He also appealed to the Lithuanian prosecutor's office on this matter.

Gražulis is the political opposite of Žalimas. Žalimas was a presidential candidate from the left-liberal Freedom Party. Gražulis, on the other hand, takes anti-liberal, anti-European Union positions. Gražulis recently visited the Belarusian embassy in Belgium and stated that Lithuania should initiate negotiations with Lukashenka, and the European Parliament should push Lithuania to do so. Gražulis has been spotted several times in the company of Belarusian businessman Dzmitry Skindzerau, who declared war on Tsikhanouskaya.

Pavel Latushka, head of the National Anti-Crisis Management, expressed solidarity with Žalimas. He believes that the attacks on Žalimas have "all the hallmarks of a coordinated information campaign by Belarusian and Russian special services."

Latushka links the choice of Dainius Žalimas as a target to the significant contribution made by the Justice Hub center, which he previously headed, to promoting "the accountability of representatives of the Lukashenka regime for international crimes committed against Belarusians."

"The history of my personal interaction with Mr. Žalimas," states Pavel Latushka's statement, "began in 2021. In 2023, it was thanks to the work organized and financed by the Justice Hub center that the first multilateral report on crimes against humanity in Belarus was prepared. It can be confidently stated that this is the first major expert document that directly substantiated the qualification of crimes against humanity in Belarus. And most importantly, this document described in great detail the ways to achieve justice taking into account available international and national mechanisms."

"On March 12, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court launched an investigation into the 'Belarusian situation'. At the same time, Dainius Žalimas consistently advocates for international justice in Belarus, support for Ukraine, and a pan-European vector on the platform of the European Parliament," Latushka noted.

"In Dainius Žalimas, democratic Belarus has found a true friend and ally, for which I am sincerely grateful to him," adds Pavel Latushka.

The Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT) and the Prosecutor's Office of Lithuania usually do not comment on cases until their final review. In Lithuania, these bodies are independent of the executive and legislative branches and enjoy high public trust.

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