Lithuania's Foreign Ministry is looking at whether it would be possible to add pro-Kremlin Russian performers to the blacklist of people banned from coming to the county.
"Discussions are underway. Yesterday, we brought together a group of people to evaluate such possibilities from the legal point of view," Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told reporters on Friday.
His statement comes in response after it emerged that local event organisers received subsidies for the cancelled shows of Philipp Kirkorov and Mikhail Shufutinsky, who are seen as vocal Kremlin advocates.
In one instance, Kirkorov praised Putin in 2017 for achievements so great they were “beyond comprehension”, according to the New York Times.
Landsbergis said that the criteria for adding someone to the blacklist "must be very clear and legally justified".
Earlier on Friday, Culture Minister Simonas Kairys described the situation as a slap in the face.
“I would also like to use this painful lesson as an occasion to take a deeper look at a problem that has been around for a very long time. It is not the first time in the public domain that we have witnessed incidents or doubts about the concerts by pro-Putin performers in Lithuania,” Kairys wrote.
Late in November, the Lithuanian Council for Culture allocated a subsidy of nearly 13,700 euros to Bravo Events over the losses sustained due to cancelled shows by Kirkorov.
A subsidy allocated to Mon Voyage, which sustained losses due to cancelled shows by Shufutinsky, amounted to nearly 17,000 euros.
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