Robertas Kaunas

Robertas Kaunas was born on 7 January 1985 in Kaunas, Lithuania.

In 2010, he graduated from Kaunas University of Technology with a degree in Telecommunication Engineering.

In 2004, he completed Kaunas Milikonių Secondary School.

As of November 2025, Kaunas was the sole owner of UAB Inkodus, which had 17 employees and an average monthly salary of about €4,880 (gross) for its staff (roughly €2,953 net).

He left UAB Inostatus on 19 June 2024, after which the company’s ownership was transferred to his aide Donatas Latkauskas and Latkauskas’s wife Rima Latkauskienė.

On 11 June 2019, he co-founded a company called UAB Inostatus together with his future parliamentary aide Donatas Latkauskas, aiming to introduce German screw-pile foundation technology to the market.

From 2013 to 2024, he was the director of the private company UAB Inkodus.

By 2025, he was serving as one of the vice-chairpersons of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party.

He was appointed as the Minister of National Defense of the Republic of Lithuania in November 2025.

Kaunas’s appointment as Defense Minister in 2025 came after the previous minister, Dovilė Šakalienė, was ousted from the post amid criticism, making Kaunas the leading candidate to replace her.

He has been a member of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party’s parliamentary faction in the Seimas since 14 November 2024.

He assumed office as a member of the Seimas on 14 November 2024, at the start of the 2024–2028 parliamentary term.

On 15 March 2024, he was re-elected for a second term as chairman of the LSDP Kaunas City branch.

In 2023, he was elected chairman of the LSDP Kaunas City branch.

Since 2023 he has also served as a member of the LSDP national Presidium.

He served as a member of the Kaunas City Council from 2023 until 2024.

He has been a member of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) since 2013.

On 26 September 2025, he joined the Seimas National Security and Defence Committee as a member.

He was a member of the Seimas Economics Committee from 19 November 2024 to 25 September 2025.

He chaired the Seimas Maritime Affairs Commission (Jūrinių reikalų komisija) from 5 December 2024 to 13 November 2025.

He serves as a member of the Seimas Committee for the Future (Ateities komitetas) since 19 November 2024.

In the 2024 Seimas election runoff for Aleksotas–Vilijampolė, he secured about 61.3% of the vote, defeating TS-LKD candidate Paulius Lukševičius (34.9%).

In the final runoff results for the Aleksotas–Vilijampolė constituency (2024 Seimas elections), Kaunas won with 56.27% of the vote against Paulius Lukševičius’s 40.95%.

In the first round of voting (13 October 2024) for the Aleksotas–Vilijampolė seat, Kaunas placed second with about 13.1% of the vote, trailing TS-LKD candidate Paulius Lukševičius (16.94%) before later winning in the runoff.

In the first round of voting on 13 October 2024 for the Aleksotas–Vilijampolė seat, Kaunas placed second with roughly 2,890 votes (about 13.1%), trailing TS-LKD candidate Paulius Lukševičius who led with approximately 3,746 votes (16.94%).

In 2024, he ran as an LSDP candidate and was elected to the Seimas from the Aleksotas–Vilijampolė constituency (No. 19).

In the 2024 Seimas elections, Kaunas was ranked 69th on the LSDP’s national party list, but secured a seat by winning the single-member Aleksotas–Vilijampolė constituency.

In 2023, Robertas Kaunas was elected as a member of the Kaunas City Municipal Council.

Upon becoming Minister of National Defense in 2025, his monthly salary would be higher – estimated around €5,000 net (approximate).

As a member of the Seimas (from late 2024), his base monthly salary is approximately €3,781 net (after taxes) under the new pay scale.

Kaunas’s 2024 asset declaration showed that most of his €228.5 k in assets was tied up in a newly built house (~€196 k value) and a land parcel (~€27 k), with smaller amounts in cash (~€1.1 k) and stocks (~€4.3 k); he also had about €180 k in outstanding loans.

As of 2024, his official asset filings indicated approximately €228.5k in total assets and €180k in liabilities, implying a net worth on the order of €48k.

According to VMI data, there was no significant change in Kaunas’s declared net worth between 2023 and 2024 (both around €228k in total assets).

In 2023, Robertas Kaunas declared annual income of about €64,037.

Robertas Kaunas’s former wife, Irma Kaunienė, was a shareholder of UAB Inkodus from its founding in 2012 until 2019. Kaunas has noted in his biography that he is now divorced.

He is the chairman of the Seimas "Kaunas Region" group of MPs, an informal parliamentary group established on 21 November 2024.

He is a co-founder and stakeholder (dalininkas) of the Montessori Education Center (Montessori ugdymo centras) since 2020, which operates a private Montessori kindergarten in Kaunas (though as of 2023 the center had no revenues or employees).

Since 2014, he has been a member of the Kaunas Žalgiris basketball fan club (formerly the Kaunas Žalgiris Honor Club).

On 3 November 2025, around 70 people gathered at Simono Daukanto Square in Vilnius to protest against Robertas Kaunas’s appointment as Defense Minister, arguing that he lacked the necessary experience and urging President Gitanas Nausėda not to confirm him.

In late 2025, investigative journalist Birutė Davidonytė accused Robertas Kaunas of misleading the public about receiving EU financial support for his business, pointing out that Kaunas’s company UAB Inkodus was a partner in an ongoing EU-funded “Hightech Kaunas” project with about €319,684 in allocated funds.

In late October 2025, after Robertas Kaunas was nominated as Minister of National Defense, opposition leader Laurynas Kasčiūnas publicly criticized him as an unsuitable candidate due to his lack of experience in the defense field.

Kaunas’s former company UAB Inostatus was sued by a competitor (UAB Bipa) in 2019 for allegedly luring away an employee and clients, but the case was ultimately resolved in Inostatus’s favor as the court ruled that the allegations were unsubstantiated.

In a social media comment during the 2014 Crimea crisis, Kaunas referred to NATO, the EU, and the United States as “myžniai ir tinginiai” (slang for 'cowards and slackers'), criticizing their inaction against Russia’s annexation of Crimea. This remark resurfaced in 2025 amid scrutiny of his nomination as Defense Minister.

In 2025, he proposed postponing until 2027 the requirement for small business owners to install cash registers.

As of 2025, there are no public records of Robertas Kaunas receiving any notable awards or honors.

According to official data, in 2024 Kaunas declared total personal assets worth approximately €228,500.

He is fluent in both English and Russian.