Audronius Ažubalis (born 17 January 1958

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

, Lithuania) is a Lithuanian journalist and politician, serving as the

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos užsienio reikalų ministerija) is a governmental body of the Lithuania, Republic of Lithuania that shapes the national policy, and organises, coordinates, and ...

from 2010 - 2012. He was a member of the

Seimas The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas), or simply the Seimas (), is the unicameral parliament of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of government in Lithuania, enacting laws and amendme ...

1996–2000, and was elected again in 2004. He has chaired the foreign affairs committee of the Seimas. Ažubalis represents the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, Lithuania's conservative party and part of the European People's Party.

Biography

In 1976 he graduated from

Antanas Vienuolis Antanas Vienuolis (born Antanas Žukauskas; 7 April 1882 — 17 August 1957) was a Soviet and Lithuanian writer, dramatist and one of the most famous realistic prosaists. Biography Vienuolis was born on April 7, 1882, in Ažuožeriai, Any ...

secondary school in

and enrolled into the

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow and ...

. He received a tertiary education degree in history in 1989. Later he continued his studies at the World Press Institute at

Macalester College Macalester College () is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 2,174 students in the fall of 2018 from 50 U.S. states, four U.S te ...

, United States. In January 2010, Prime Minister

Andrius Kubilius Andrius Kubilius (born 8 December 1956) is a Lithuanian politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019. He served as Prime Minister of Lithuania from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012.LR Vyriausio ...

presented Ažubalis as a candidate for the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs to President

Dalia Grybauskaitė Dalia Grybauskaitė (; born 1 March 1956) is a Lithuanian politician who served as the eighth President of Lithuania from 2009 until 2019. She is the first woman to hold the position and in 2014 she became the first President of Lithuania to be ...

Views on Stalinism

Together with five other European foreign ministers, Ažubalis has called for the criminalization of "the approval, denial or belittling of

communist crimes Communist crimes ( pl, zbrodnie komunistyczne) is a legal definition used in the Polish Penal Code. The concept of a communist crime is also used more broadly internationally, and is employed by human rights non-governmental organizations as wel ...

," arguing that "everybody knows about the crimes of Nazism, but only part of Europe is aware of the crimes of communism." Ažubalis has argued that "it is not possible to find differences between Hitler and Stalin except in their moustaches," echoing the view advanced by

Stéphane Courtois Stéphane Courtois (born 25 November 1947) is a French historian and university professor, a director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), professor at the Catholic Institute of Higher Studies (ICES) in La Ro ...

in ''

The Black Book of Communism ''The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression'' is a 1997 book by Stéphane Courtois, Andrzej Paczkowski, Nicolas Werth, Jean-Louis Margolin, and several other European academics documenting a history of political repression by co ...

''.

References

External links

Conservatives want Ažubalis to head foreign ministry
(2010-01-26 08:11 by Alfa.lt staff, Alfa.lt) Living people 1958 births Members of the Seimas Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Journalists from Vilnius Vilnius University alumni Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 2nd Class 21st-century Lithuanian politicians {{Lithuania-politician-stub