The Baltic Waves Radio is a private initiative, the state of Lithuania does not support it and has nothing in common with it. This opinion was voiced by the members of the Seimas Foreign Affairs Committee, who discussed the initiative of MP Rimantas Pleikys to establish a radio station broadcasting in Russian and Belarusian. The radio station would aim to provide better information to the Russian-speaking populations of the Baltic states as well as Russia and Belarus in their native languages about developments in these countries and around the world. The plans to establish Baltic Waves have outraged Belarus. The Belarusian ambassador to Lithuania, Uladzimir Harkun, has told some Lithuanian MPs that such a radio station would interfere in Belarus's internal affairs and could therefore cause good-neighbourly relations to deteriorate.
Belarusian officials view the establishment of the radio station as an official initiative.
The Belarusian side has been assured that this is only a private initiative financed from private funds, not state money. The MPs suggested that Pleikys himself meet the Belarusian ambassador and brief him on Baltic Waves. The initiators of the Baltic Waves Radio have reportedly received financial assistance from Great Britain. Britain's Westminster Foundation for Democracy has allocated 30,000 pounds sterling for the Baltic Waves Radio project, the Baltic News Service reported. Pleikys says the sum amounts to about half of the funding needed for daily broadcasts of one hour.