After one of the participants went to court, the procurement procedures for the demolition of the so-called Moscow Houses in Vilnius were suspended.
State territorial planning and construction inspection announced that the court had applied interim protective measures.
"A legal process is currently underway, therefore further procurement actions regarding the demolition of the building at A. Juozapavičiaus St. 30 in Vilnius cannot be continued temporarily," the inspectorate stated.
She said she has appealed the court's ruling on interim measures and is also preparing a response to the lawsuit.
Since the procurement procedures have not been completed and a legal dispute is ongoing, the inspectorate states that it is unable to comment further on the procurement process or provide additional information about the participants' proposals, the preliminary ranking, or the value of the demolition work.
"At this time, it is also not possible to predict when the procurement procedures will be resumed or the contractor for the works will be identified. Everything will depend on court decisions and the further course of the proceedings," the statement reads.
In October last year, the State Territorial Planning and Construction Inspectorate announced the procurement of works for the demolition of the Moscow House in Vilnius and the cleanup of the construction site.
It has been announced that demolishing the building and cleaning up the construction site could cost 1,846 million euros, excluding value-added tax.
BNS wrote that the idea of a Moscow House in Vilnius had been developed since 2004, after the then-Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, visited Vilnius to celebrate the 750th anniversary of the coronation of King Mindaugas. It was then decided to implement a similar Vilnius House project in Moscow.
The so-called Moscow House was to become a center for cultural and business cooperation, the goal of which was to create and further develop good neighborly relations between Moscow and Vilnius.
In 2008, the Vilnius municipality issued a construction permit for the building at the intersection of Rinktinė and Juozapavičius streets, and construction began.
However, after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the idea of building such a center was gradually abandoned.
In 2016, the Vilnius City District Court partially satisfied the claim of the Building Inspectorate and recognized that the construction permit issued by the municipality was illegal because it violated the height and building density requirements established by the municipality itself in the detailed plan of this territory.
The court had given the public institution that built the building, Moscow House of Culture and Business Center, a three-year term to rebuild the building according to the revised project, or else within six months to demolish it at its own expense. This term was later extended.
In the 2017 National Security Threats Assessment, the State Security Department noted that the prospects of the "Moscow House" project in Vilnius "have a relatively high symbolic and practical significance for Russia as a potential instrument of its influence, homeland policy and public diplomacy."
In 2022, the court granted the State Spatial Planning and Construction Inspectorate the right to demolish the building, and fined the institution that built it 300 euros for each day of non-compliance with the court decision.
