Asked whether the ambassadors had handed in their resignation letters, Rasa Jakilaitienė, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told BNS on Friday that "an investigation is underway" and refused to elaborate.
Both ambassadors are currently on vacation. Lithuania's Embassy in Azerbaijan told BNS that Ambassador Artūras Žurauskas is on his annual vacation from July 15 until August 19. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian Embassy in Hungary told BNS that Ambassador Renatas Juška is on vacation as of August 1.
On July 8, recordings of three phone conversations (4 parts in total) were published on youtube.com. The conversations allegedly involve Lithuanian diplomats Zenonas Kumetaitis, deputy director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Eastern Neighborhood Policy Department, Renatas Juška, Lithuania's Ambassador to Hungary, Artūras Žurauskas, Lithuania's Ambassador to Azerbaijan, and Gediminas Kasputis, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In one of the conversations, Žurauskas is allegedly talking to a Lithuanian businessman named Kęstutis.
All records feature English subtitles.
