Unfriendly buildings

The so-called Moscow House has been a bone of contention ever since construction began in 2010.  It was designed with the hope to establish better relations between Moscow and Vilnius when Yury Luzhkov was mayor.  It was supposed to be a center for cultural and business exchange.  However, Luzhkov ran afoul of Putin, and was forced to resign, and not much was heard from him afterward.  He died in 2019.  Construction continued just the same, with a mysterious new client trying to add an extra floor atop, which led to a stop construction order in 2016, and the building was taken over by graffiti artists.

It's in a very prominent location, one that is undergoing massive urban renewal, so the Vilnius mayor wants the building torn down, calling it "functionally incomplete and irrational." Of course, much depends on the owner, unless the mayor plans to seize the building by eminent domain, setting off another row with Moscow, which Vilnius is not on very good terms with these days.  Last year, Russia once again placed Lithuania on its list of "unfriendly nations." It's in good company along with the other Baltic countries, Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Georgia and the UK.

I had met a Lithuanian-American in 2010, who said he was instrumental in getting this project through the city planning department.  He seemed to have a lot of influence in the city, including the proposed new gymnasium my wife and I were designing for the American International School.  He was one of the school board members.  We would get into arguments over politics, friendly for the most part, but there was something kind of nefarious about him.  Mostly, I didn't like that little smirk of his.  I haven't seen him in quite a while or heard anyone talk about him, so maybe he went back to the States, or Moscow perhaps?  We got the gymnasium built with no help of his.

There are a lot of Russians living and working in Vilnius, so from that point of view a business and cultural center makes sense.  Russia has an embassy, but it stands like an iron fortress in the Žverynas residential district, and very few persons want to go near it.  This building was supposed to offer a kinder, gentler face to the Russian Federation, but I'm not sure glass curtain walls really would have achieved that objective.

Vilnius is dotted with all kinds of nasty reminders of the Soviet and Russian eras of occupation.  Many have since been rehabilitated.  The old governor's palace from Tsarist times was made into the Presidential palace after independence, and the former Soviet library remade into the national library, winning numerous awards for its contemporary interior.  So,  this building could be repurposed as well.  It isn't very beautiful, but then neither are its new surroundings. 

There has been an obsession with glass ever since joining the EU in 2004.  It's easy to work with.  You just build a concrete skeleton and erect a glass curtain wall around it with energy efficient ratings.  Not much imagination other than playing with the forms.  I suppose the goal was to make the city look more contemporary.  The city planning department has been trying to encourage architects and clients to think of new ways to clad buildings, but so far there haven't been very many inspiring examples.

As for Vilnius' relationship with Moscow, it doesn't look like it will improve any time soon.  Lithuania has been sharply critical of Russia aiding and abetting Belarus in flooding the borders with so-called refugees.  The crisis has now dragged into its second year, with only marginal support from the EU, which would like to see Lithuania process all those persons illegally trying to break through the makeshift fences  Of course, Putin just smiles and says he has nothing to do with it, but everyone knows the games he plays.

This is the reason no one was excited about this building to begin with, labeling it a "propaganda machine."  Russia already has a dominating influence over the local media, flooding cable providers with its many news and entertainment networks.  Scrolling to the end of our cable programs, there are no less than 20 Russian channels.  As a result, there is no end to disinformation, especially in regard to coronavirus, which has resulted in a large percentage of Lithuanians remaining unvaccinated.

Putin also likes to rewrite history, something that Lithuanians are very sensitive about. He has never once visited Lithuania, and only nominally appears to recognize its independence.  He has cast doubt on the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, insinuating that Lithuanian voluntarily became part of the Soviet Union in 1940, and in his mind might want to do so again.  He's infiltrated local political parties through surrogates, who repeat his talking points.  This has been going on for the past two decades, reaching an ugly head last summer, when we saw an insurrection attempt on the Parliament in August, with many of the same trappings as the one earlier that year on the US Capitol.  At least three parliament members were singled out in the crowd.

It's pretty easy to connect the dots.  The ringleaders are the same ones that organize St. George's Day demonstrations each year, but have found a new battle cry over the regulations and vaccines trying to curb COVID.  They were previously content to march on Vingio Park in April, but now seem to have broader ambitions.

This keeps the city on edge.  This was manifestly apparent on January 13, a day of solemn remembrance of the night the Soviet tanks rolled into Vilnius to squash its uprising in 1991.  For some ridiculous reason, the city had granted demonstrators permits to protest COVID regulations on this day.  They did their best to drown out the speeches that were being given outside the parliament building.  Speakers tried to calmly plead with protesters to be quiet, but were met with catcalls of "shame" and blaring foghorns in response.  Everyone was shocked, most of all my wife.  

She had been in the crowd that bitterly cold night in 1991, and lost part of her hearing as a result of the blanks the tanks were firing into the crowd.  13 persons were killed and countless others injured in defense of Lithuanian independence.  Yet, these new protesters see themselves as patriots, waving symbols of Lithuanian pride but seeming to have no earthly idea what they mean, much less understand that they are being used as pawns in Putin's malevolent games. It makes my wife so bitter that she often says if they hate Lithuania so much, why don't they leave?

The simple reason is that the standard of living is so much higher in Lithuania than it is in Russia.  For all the material resources at Putin's disposal and the ever-increasing price of natural gas and oil, Russians live below the standard of living not just of EU nations like Lithuania and Poland, but below those of Belarus and Ukraine, largely seen as economic basket cases.  All the wealth of Russia has been consolidated in a very small handful of oligarchs, answerable to Count Vladimir, with the vast majority of Russians struggling to just get by, especially in a city like Moscow, which is considered one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in.  As a result, the Russian diaspora increases each year, but many still hold emotional ties to Moscow and are prey to the propaganda emanating from the Kremlin.  

It's not just Russians but Lithuanians too, many of whom have business ties to Russia.  One of the funny stories that came out of the Russian food boycott of 2014, when they banned most food imports from the EU, is that Russia found themselves short of rennet, which Lithuania had long provided since the days of the Soviet Union.  The rennet had to be smuggled into Russia through Belarus, as there wasn't enough available to make cheese and other dairy products to meet Russian demand.  So, these businesses try to maintain friendly connections with Moscow, hoping to avoid any future boycotts.

I suppose Lithuania will never cut itself off from Russia entirely.  There is too much cross-pollination, especially in theater and music.  One of our great theater directors, Rimas Tuminas, recently came under fire for some of his comments on a Russian news program.  He has been the director of the famed Vakhtangov theater in Moscow for the better part of a decade, and recently celebrated his 70th birthday.  According to Tuminas, his words were twisted by Vladimir Pozner, and he never meant to diminish his home country.  He has long supported cultural exchange between the two countries.

That's the way many Lithuanians feel.  My wife is always excited when one of the leading Russian actors comes to Moscow, as was the case with Sergei Makovetsky a few years ago.  He gave one of his famous monologues at a local theater.  Unfortunately, I didn't understand much of it, but my wife was so thoroughly enjoying it that I experienced the thrill vicariously.  I enjoy him through his movies like Duska.

There is no hatred toward Russia, but rather a deep concern with the way Lithuania is being projected in the Russia media, and how that is affecting relationships here in Lithuania.  So many families are multi-ethnic.  There are no clear dividing lines.  Yet, Putin is actively stoking resentment through surrogates in the country, hoping to drive these relations apart.  

Little wonder this unfinished building has evoked so much scorn.  It is yet another banal symbol of the influence Russia tries to exert over Lithuania and other Eastern European countries, with the hope it can go back to its pre-1991 borders.  It will be nice to see it torn down and something more sympathetic erected in its place, preferably not made of glass curtain walls.  If Russia really wants to deepen cultural and business ties, lets do so in a spirit of magnanimity, not punitive actions like silly blockades and discouraging Russians to travel to Vilnius because it is supposedly "unfriendly."  Not only Lithuanians, but Russians living in Lithuania would greatly appreciate better relations.