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Lithuania revokes residence permits for Russians

2023-07-18 08:59:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Lithuania has revoked the residence permits of more than 100 Russians living inside the country, considering them a security threat.

In figures shared with Euronews on Monday, the country's Migration Department said 38 Russian nationals had been stripped of their right to permanent residence in 2022, while another 97 were stripped of their right to stay within the country this year. Russian.

Despite the growing restrictions, the number of Russians applying for residence permits in Lithuania doubled between 2021 and 2022 to almost 4,000, according to the Migration Department.

The right to live in Lithuania can be revoked for several reasons. Authorities told Euronews that foreigners can lose their permit if they commit a "very serious crime", "pose a threat to state security or society".

On Friday, Lithuania's State Security Department (VSD) announced that it had deported Russian citizen Vladimir Vodo, a self-styled "journalist".

"Considering the current geopolitical situation," they told Euronews, "Vodo was a security risk."

He had "disloyal views towards Lithuania, spread pro-Russian propaganda on social media and had contacts with Russian and Belarusian intelligence services," they said.

Vodo calls himself a freelance journalist on LinkedIn, having worked for a number of Russian media outlets, although Euronews could not verify the authenticity of this account.

Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last year raised security concerns in the small Baltic state. Bordering the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, Kiev's staunch ally was once part of the USSR and now feels threatened by a revisionist Russia.

Officials in Vilnius find themselves in a tricky position. There is a desire to support opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, but there are also security concerns about allowing citizens of these countries in and out of Lithuania.

Tourist visits to Lithuania by Russians were banned last year, as in many other parts of Europe.

Lithuania's Migration Department has sent surveys to Russian citizens living inside the country, asking them about who rightfully owns Crimea and their views on the war.

Crimea is a Black Sea peninsula that was illegally seized from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, shortly after the Ukrainians ousted Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovych.

Ownership of Crimea has been contested throughout history, passing from power to power over the centuries.

Some Russians living in Lithuania have complained that they face hostility over their government's occupation of Ukraine.

Support for Ukraine is very high in Lithuania. Many Lithuanians are hard on Russia, frightened by what they call the occupation, exploitation and Russification of their country under the USSR, although there is ambivalence in some quarters./ CNA