A new bill making its way in the parliament will make it easier to take away Lithuanian citizenship from foreigners who support Russia.
The law will only apply to naturalised dual citizens who received Lithuanian citizenship for their merits by way of exception. The initiative follows a recent outcry over the Russian-Lithuanian ice dancer Margarita Drobiazko who participated in a show in Russia’s Sochi last summer.
Conservative MP Dalia Asanavičiūtė, who authored the amendment to the Law on Citizenship, has admitted that it was a response to Drobiazko’s case.
The bill states that foreigners who received the Lithuanian passport for special merits and retain their original citizenship may be stripped of their Lithuanian citizenship if they “endanger through their actions the security interests of Lithuania or its allies and thus brings the country into disrepute”.
Drobiazko, along with her husband and dance partner Povilas Vanagas, who is Lithuanian by birth, took part in the show in Sochi last August. The event was organised by Tatyana Navka, the wife of the Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
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This caused an outrage in Lithuania, where this was largely interpreted as symbolic support for Russia and its aggression against Ukraine.
President Gitanas Nausėda subsequently stripped the pair of their state awards they received for representing Lithuania in international competitions, including the Olympic Games.
The bill that will allow to revoke Drobiazko’s citizenship passed the first reading in the parliament on Thursday, receiving 62 votes in favour, 12 against, and four abstentions.
Speaking with reporters on Thursday, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said she supported the bill.
“I find it very strange that a person receives citizenship for their merit, has another citizenship, but then decides to repay the country that granted them citizenship for merit, so to speak, by undermining its policy and its support for Ukraine attacked by Russia,” the prime minister said.
MP Asanavičiūtė, of the ruling conservative Homeland Union (TS-LKD) party, insisted that a Lithuanian citizen must be loyal to the country.
The new provision will only apply to people who have been granted Lithuanian citizenship by means of exception. There are currently around 800 citizens in this category.
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