Lithuania's foreign ministry denies "fake news" of sanctions against Mongolia

VILNIUS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday "categorically" denies reports claiming that Lithuania had allegedly imposed trade sanctions against Mongolia.

The ministry described the reports as "fake news", adding "this is not the first time, when such anti-Lithuanian and third-party aggressive informational actions aim at compromising Lithuania in the international space."

It "emphasizes that Lithuania and Mongolia are developing constructive bilateral relations and actively cooperating in multilateral formats, as well as gradually expanding economic cooperation."

Unknown authors claimed Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite supposedly authorized limiting trade relations with Mongolia allegedly reacting to Mongolia's President Klatmaa Battulga statement saying that "the Baltic States were freed by the Soviet army."

The false information describing Lithuanian "sanctions" against Mongolia was spread earlier this week on website Livejournal, Japlakal and later circulated on social networks Facebook and Twitter.

False quotes of Lithuania's Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, whose family name has been mistyped, are submitted in the fake news, Lithuanian website Delfi.lt reported.

"Creating of such news" shows that somebody is annoyed by Lithuanian principled stance," Skvernelis said in his comments emailed to Delfi.lt, without elaborating and pointing to "low quality" of the news. Enditem