Lithuania (LDDP), the former Communist Party of Lithuania, won a majority in the country's first post-independence elections. At the time, Lithuania's regular military was still very weak and Russian troops were still stationed in the country. The volunteers were seen as disloyal to the new leftist government. One of the versions of the events blames LDDP and its policies – distrusting SKAT, the new government reduced its funding, did not provide uniforms, ordered to surrender weapons (many of which were purchased by the volunteers from personal funds), etc. thus provoking the volunteers into action. Coup On 31 July 1993, SKAT officer Jonas Maskvytis gathered his weapons that he had personally purchased from the retreating Russian Army and left Kaunas to nearby forests. He later explained that he was helping an acquaintance who was defrauded by a group of criminals who trafficked in counterfeit Deutsche Marks. Maskvytis fired at a car with the criminals and corrupt police officers. Upon learning that he would likely be arrested and that he was dismissed by the Minister of National Defence Audrius Butkevičius, Maskvytis decided not to give in and retreat to the forests. He was accompanied by three men and soon joined by others. They took over a homestead of professor in . The crisis escalated after the government issued an order to collect weapons from SKAT units on 14 September. Because Minister Butkevičius was away in Turkey, the order was signed by his deputy Gediminas Pulokas. While the Russian Army was present in Lithuania, the volunteers kept their weapons so that they could respond almost instantly to a threat. When the last convoy of the Russian troops left Lithuania on 31 August, the government ordered the weapons secured and kept in depots. The volunteers protested taking of their weapons and Maskvytis was joined by company commander Alvydas Pangonis and his men on 16 September. The men, now numbering about 150, expressed their dissatisfaction with the new LDDP government and President Algirdas Brazauskas and raised social and political demands. The men also claimed to have the support of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. In 2007, Brazauskas publicly claimed that the volunteers planned his assassination and wrote in his memoirs that some of the demands were typed on Seimas computers and sent via Seimas fax machines. The government first responded on 17 September with an order from the Armed Forces Staff to surrender the weapons or