LRT — broadcast
20260806 223000 UTC
366 transcript segments
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking
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[00:00:01] "World boxing champion, facing the most important
[00:00:05] fight of his life.
[00:00:07] A story about an old friendship and new
[00:00:11] enemies. Creed
[00:00:13] 3. Friday,
[00:00:16] 22.15, RNRT television.
[00:02:02] we rose, well,
[00:06:58] After about a year or so, when
[00:07:01] they started recruiting Sąjūdis volunteers,
[00:07:05] I went and signed up
[00:07:09] for those Sąjūdis volunteers.
[00:07:13] I was guarding
[00:07:16] the "spodos" center, or is it called the center?
[00:07:20] It seems so. It was such
[00:07:23] a
[00:07:26] bore to be in corridors without windows,
[00:07:30] but somehow
[00:07:33] I contributed
[00:07:34] a little.
[00:08:18] Passos and Tritos somehow
[00:08:21] I understood that something had to be done, because
[00:08:25] if we do nothing, no one will do it for us, as
[00:08:29] they say, "bautai" won't do it for us, and
[00:08:33] who else but
[00:09:43] And we would go together to the
[00:09:46] TV tower to patrol
[00:09:50] and guard.
[00:09:52] And she trusted me, she said, "I work at the customs," and
[00:09:56] showed her service
[00:09:58] ID.
[00:10:01] That ID was extraordinary, one
[00:10:04] card and laminated.
[00:10:08] And we, I had never seen
[00:10:11] such a laminated ID. She said
[00:10:14] it was very durable. A soldier took it,
[00:10:17] from a colleague, and stomped on it with his boots,
[00:10:21] stomped, tore, and couldn't tear it up.
[00:10:27] "Oh, this is serious," I thought ironically, because
[00:10:30] they issued such an ID that couldn't be
[00:10:34] torn so quickly. To an uncivilized person,
[00:10:38] it made a big impression that such a serious
[00:10:41] organization.
[00:10:43] I received an invitation as a volunteer
[00:10:47] to go for
[00:10:50] an interview for a job at the
[00:10:53] border. But I,
[00:10:56] excuse me, didn't quite like the atmosphere.
[00:10:59] Somehow, when I appeared, it seemed
[00:11:03] strange.
[00:11:05] And with that girl, that
[00:11:09] acquaintance, we agreed that I would
[00:11:12] go and submit an application to
[00:11:15] that customs. What is that
[00:11:19] customs, why customs? It's not entirely clear to me, but I know that I need
[00:11:23] to work at the border. But their
[00:11:26] IDs were so
[00:11:28] civilized.
[00:11:31] And
[00:11:34] that was the decision. I went
[00:11:37] about
[00:11:39] two weeks after January 13th,
[00:11:43] with my
[00:11:45] application
[00:11:47] I went. Tomas Šernas came to me in early
[00:11:50] February. It was
[00:11:54] a very interesting conversation with him.
[00:11:57] He was an interesting person, he was our
[00:12:01] philosopher. And he always had so many ideas, such
[00:12:05] profound thoughts about everything. And then
[00:12:08] we realized that he was a deeply
[00:12:11] religious person, because he always somehow
[00:12:15] went to heaven and to God. And we were all such "bambizai,"
[00:12:19] so unaccustomed to those
[00:12:22] customs. We listened to him. "He explained
[00:12:26] all those truths very
[00:12:29] interestingly. In the evening, when traffic
[00:12:33] decreased, we would go out into the yard. Everyone, of course, smoked, so
[00:12:36] after a cigarette, Tomas, we all listened. It was interesting.
[00:12:40] So, that's how my shift
[00:12:43] was. I remember that
[00:12:46] day, February 23rd, Soviet Army
[00:12:50] Day.
[00:12:52] And I ended up
[00:12:56] there for the first time. I remember it
[00:12:59] well. A booth, a bullet-ridden
[00:13:03] flag hanging by the
[00:13:06] electricity pole. A telephone.
[00:13:09] You couldn't call Vilnius, only through the farm.
[00:13:13] A sofa, a table, another
[00:13:16] table, mattresses
[00:13:20] lying around, and that's it.
[00:13:24] And a crowd of people
[00:13:26] dressed in various ways, with
[00:13:29] armbands.
[00:13:32] Lithuanian customs.
[00:13:35] Revolutionary
[00:13:38] mood.
[00:13:39] So, that post had been
[00:13:43] attacked once, and
[00:13:47] shot at.
[00:13:51] But it wasn't burned then.
[00:15:27] there to sign and
[00:15:31] stamp and back again.
[00:15:33] That's how it was.
[00:15:37] It would get very hot, especially
[00:15:40] when passing cars were checked by Soviet officials,
[00:15:43] because we couldn't arrest them, say, and
[00:15:46] kick them out. But we would station our
[00:15:49] officials nearby at a certain
[00:15:52] small distance. And those who travel
[00:15:55] from the Soviet Union to Lithuania,
[00:15:59] or from Lithuania, we already consider
[00:16:02] that as going from Lithuania to somewhere
[00:16:06] else. That "somewhere else" where can it be? The Soviet Union? That's not
[00:16:09] Lithuania anymore. From Lithuania, they go
[00:16:12] there. They must be checked. What are they
[00:16:15] carrying? Sometimes they carry very valuable things, and there is
[00:16:19] an order to take out, take out, take out from Lithuania what is
[00:16:22] most valuable. We know that, we try
[00:16:26] to catch them, we try to block them, to save our
[00:16:29] property, which the Soviets stole simply
[00:16:33] because they have weapons and can do it
[00:16:36] with impunity." "And we
[00:16:39] start to restrict, we stop them,
[00:16:42] meaning they pass their posts and
[00:16:45] then they run into our posts. Now explain what
[00:16:49] you are carrying here and why. A Lithuanian
[00:16:52] post stands there. Well, they are terribly
[00:16:55] angry. They feel
[00:16:59] provoked, offended. But from our
[00:17:02] side, it's the most normal state
[00:17:05] behavior. We defend
[00:17:09] we control. First of all, we control who is going where,
[00:17:12] why. Show
[00:17:13] your documents.
[00:17:16] And if you're driving with a rifle and say, "I won't show them," well, then you're
[00:17:20] driving like a terrorist. You're driving with
[00:17:22] a rifle.
[00:17:25] Or you are also
[00:17:27] maneuvering,
[00:17:30] you show something partially, you somehow get away with it,
[00:17:34] but crossing the border is already controlled.
[00:17:38] We are "bautarusai," they didn't quite understand what
[00:17:41] it was. They understood that it was Sąjūdis, they called us Sąjūdis.
[00:17:45] And
[00:17:49] well, some changes. They used to
[00:17:52] travel back and forth, back and forth every day,
[00:17:56] and that annoyed them, visiting relatives or maybe to another
[00:18:00] village or something similar.
[00:18:03] So they had enough roads where they could
[00:18:06] travel without... "without any inspection.
[00:18:09] It was a symbolic customs,
[00:18:12] practically. When they passed, there were many
[00:18:16] negative comments, all sorts of things.
[00:18:20] They would call us all sorts of names
[00:18:23] and, in short, that we wouldn't last long here,
[00:18:27] and so on. That everything was fine here,
[00:18:31] and that we were making things up. In short, but
[00:18:35] I personally truly...
[00:18:39] "heard", but those were abstract, general comments.
[00:18:41] Many were dissatisfied that, in short,
[00:18:45] Lithuania was free and
[00:18:48] visible. They needed there to be some conflict,
[00:18:52] but
[00:18:55] we were unarmed. Only the ARO men
[00:18:59] had automatic weapons and
[00:19:02] traffic police. And we were
[00:19:05] like
[00:19:07] poor little things. That's important, because
[00:19:11] that's our civilizational
[00:19:13] weapon:
[00:19:18] not to create tension where it can be
[00:19:21] avoided,
[00:19:24] to reduce anger or some
[00:19:28] bad word. Where you politely,
[00:19:31] politely, politely and
[00:19:34] you knock out, so to speak, the bad mood
[00:19:38] of people who stop and wait
[00:19:41] for Sąjūdis blows, I don't know what they're waiting for, what they
[00:19:44] imagine. And when it's polite, polite,
[00:19:48] Lithuanian customs, please, show us
[00:19:50] what, then
[00:19:54] it's
[00:19:56] calmer and easier for yourself.
[00:20:00] That was the order: you work for a day,
[00:20:02] from eight in the morning until eight
[00:20:05] in the morning, and three days off, then work a day again, then
[00:20:09] three days off. That was the schedule set by the customs department
[00:20:13] leadership. And border guards would
[00:20:16] work from 8 in the morning until 6 in the evening. They weren't
[00:20:20] there at night. And we worked like that, and we joked, why, we say,
[00:20:23] the service that is supposed to protect us, it leaves, and we have to stay
[00:20:27] here. That's why we had this idea that we would
[00:20:30] episodically go out to work at night, episodically. We don't have to
[00:20:34] be there constantly all night in the area. But
[00:20:40] it works, it doesn't work. And so that there wouldn't be talk that they work, then lock themselves up and sleep again.
[00:20:44] Here we work at night. Well, so that such
[00:20:47] a mindset about that
[00:20:51] is formed. At that time, there were no established political
[00:20:54] borders of Lithuania. We only guarded the economic border
[00:20:57] of Lithuania. We didn't know where the real border was,
[00:21:00] really. There was a film
[00:21:02] called
[00:21:05] "The Post," "Dawn," I forgot what it's called. It's a good film, but
[00:21:08] there were shots
[00:21:10] like
[00:21:13] once, when customs officers
[00:21:16] are sitting, talking in some dialect,
[00:21:20] and slowly slowly eating
[00:21:23] some sandwiches
[00:21:27] on a bench.
[00:21:30] "If only I had honey.
[00:21:34] Well, next time I'll bring
[00:21:36] it. You see, Stasiukas is always messing around,
[00:21:40] either with honey or with cards.
[00:21:43] Oh, dear.
[00:21:52] "Okay, we're sitting." Well, it wasn't like that. Maybe
[00:21:56] it doesn't seem that dynamic,
[00:21:58] that trailer and
[00:22:01] those sandwiches, that
[00:22:04] talking like in a village. No, there was no
[00:22:07] time to eat. Traffic was constant,
[00:22:11] all the time, one thing or another,
[00:22:14] either trucks or something
[00:22:18] else was driving there." "It was always
[00:22:22] work with a passenger car. And outside, we didn't
[00:22:26] eat except sometimes.
[00:22:28] And not so
[00:22:31] slowly, telling anecdotes,
[00:22:33] as someone said. He said, "It feels
[00:22:37] like you only ate pancakes and smoked there." So,
[00:22:40] in reality, it wasn't like that. There was work
[00:22:43] too. Well, we,
[00:22:47] as they say, started from scratch, and..."
[00:22:50] "Step by step
[00:22:52] we built, we built that customs, we built
[00:22:55] Lithuania, I could even
[00:22:57] say that. There were
[00:23:01] officials of various affiliations
[00:23:05] who stood at the border and guarded it. There were too
[00:23:08] few of them, we lacked them, but they were there, and they
[00:23:12] knew they were going into mortal danger, because they
[00:23:16] were told that they would be shot, they would be beaten,
[00:23:20] they would be burned, but they still went. They were
[00:23:23] extraordinarily dedicated, patriotically dedicated
[00:23:27] people who joined the border service.
[00:23:31] They were true Lithuanian soldiers for
[00:23:33] Lithuania. No, we will defend our state,
[00:23:37] precisely, the border is
[00:23:38] the front.
[00:23:41] We must withstand. Our
[00:23:44] post was burned, I think, in May.
[00:23:48] When
[00:23:51] it got warmer.
[00:23:53] I remember when that post
[00:23:55] was burned,
[00:23:58] everything was burned, but we continued
[00:24:01] our function, as if nothing
[00:24:04] happened.
[00:24:07] We check vehicles, we check
[00:24:10] documents. And if we need
[00:24:14] to clarify something about a decoration,
[00:24:16] then we take them to the
[00:24:20] post. Not to the post,
[00:24:24] but to the shift commander
[00:24:27] in the forest. People get scared, they go to
[00:24:31] the forest. There, on a stump, the commander sits, on another
[00:24:34] stump he signs something,
[00:24:37] looks at it. So, that
[00:24:41] was an interesting
[00:24:42] situation.
[00:25:13] We had informants who worked in Kaunėliai
[00:25:16] and so on. They
[00:25:21] would sometimes report: "An automobile
[00:25:23] is coming your way, possibly
[00:25:27] with armed men," and so on. So,
[00:25:30] then we had a plan to
[00:25:33] evacuate things,
[00:25:36] the sofa, documents,
[00:25:40] things that could burn.
[00:25:44] And then one or another person
[00:25:47] would stay there to work.
[00:25:51] "And we all went into the forest, like ancient
[00:25:54] Lithuanians when the Crusaders
[00:25:57] approached. That was the
[00:26:01] preparation.
[00:26:05] After that, when the police
[00:26:08] department was assigned to guard it,
[00:26:12] we relaxed a little.
[00:26:14] We didn't go to the forest anymore.
[00:26:17] It seemed that now it would be
[00:26:21] safe. A small car arrived
[00:26:24] from Vilnius.
[00:26:28] But this Zhiguli
[00:26:30] car. "And it stands,
[00:26:34] it stands for a long time.
[00:26:37] Because you could avoid going to the post if you didn't know
[00:26:40] the rules. You come, ask, if you have something
[00:26:43] over the norm. But then,
[00:26:47] well, what did they carry out? They carried all kinds of cosmetics,
[00:26:50] sweaters, jeans. Well,
[00:26:53] in short, such
[00:26:57] small things. But there were established norms, and
[00:27:01] in short, if already..." A set amount for how much you can
[00:27:05] carry. And then if you carried more,
[00:27:08] in short, you had to
[00:27:11] pay duty. Or if not,
[00:27:15] we would write a protocol.
[00:27:19] And no one came then. The guys from ARO said, "We need to go
[00:27:22] see why he's standing there so long." Well,
[00:27:26] when they started walking towards them, they turned around and drove back towards
[00:27:29] Vilnius. And before that,
[00:27:32] a Zhiguli also entered the post. I
[00:27:36] approached the car, said hello,
[00:27:39] introduced myself, asked him to open the trunk,
[00:27:43] everything. A Russian speaker was sitting there, and he asked me
[00:27:46] questions. He never asked such questions. He asked
[00:27:50] about a Vizir. He lost it. I said,
[00:27:53] "I don't know, what are you doing
[00:27:57] here?" In short, that half an hour ago, someone
[00:28:01] similar to me passed by. "If he came back, would you recognize him or
[00:28:05] not?" But I didn't answer him. Another
[00:28:08] car arrived, and I wished him a good journey, and that
[00:28:12] was the end of it. So, it created an
[00:28:16] impression that the post was possibly
[00:28:19] being watched. Such a hypothesis
[00:28:22] existed, but that such an event,
[00:28:26] that such a thing would happen,
[00:28:29] we really didn't even think about
[00:28:32] it. We didn't think about it. This is also a war
[00:28:35] of nerves at the same time.
[00:28:39] Who will endure, who will not be afraid?
[00:28:42] Lithuania was not afraid, and that's why it was
[00:28:46] hated.
[00:28:50] Just as Ukraine is hated now, because
[00:28:53] it was not afraid. They kill, but it
[00:28:56] does not surrender. How can
[00:28:58] a beast tolerate that?
[00:29:03] "It was just another day, just another
[00:29:07] day.
[00:29:10] We worked, worked, worked,
[00:29:11] worked.
[00:29:15] Evening.
[00:29:19] I called my
[00:29:22] Rasa.
[00:29:29] And we were on duty all night."
[00:29:35] So, I don't have such a special memory.
[00:29:54] My shift was like that, somewhere between
[00:29:57] four and six.
[00:30:01] But around five o'clock, it was still
[00:30:03] dark, and I decided
[00:30:07] to go to
[00:30:09] the trailer, to that cafe, to my
[00:30:12] desk to check
[00:30:16] the papers
[00:30:17] that would be needed.
[00:30:21] I had some tickets in one pocket,
[00:30:24] money elsewhere elsewhere.
[00:30:28] So I sat down at the table and...
[00:30:34] I heard a sharp sound, similar to a pistol
[00:30:38] shot. That's how the attack began.
[00:30:42] Raising my head from the table, I saw
[00:30:46] a person in uniform
[00:30:50] running from the side of the forest, from the left side,
[00:30:52] with a long weapon,
[00:30:56] such a long weapon.