Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda on Friday vetoed the so-called national sanctions law.
The president proposes that the parliament impose the same restrictions on both Russian and Belarusian citizens.
The President’s Office noted that the adopted law introduces seven different restrictive measures, four of which apply to citizens of both Russia and Belarus and three only to Russian citizens.
“The president agrees with the aim of the law to apply restrictive measures to citizens of Russia and Belarus due to their aggression against Ukraine but notes that there is no justification for introducing different legal regulations for citizens of the two aggressor states and proposes to apply the same restrictive measures to citizens of both states,” the statement reads.
According to Nausėda, Lithuania should adhere to the principle that both Russia and Belarus are aggressors against Ukraine both in its foreign policy and national law.
At the beginning of April, Lithuanian lawmakers adopted a law on national sanctions on Russian and Belarusian citizens in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine. However, it provides for softer restrictions for Belarusians than for Russians.
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Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who lives in Vilnius, later thanked Lithuania for softer restrictions for Belarusians, saying that it was a way of supporting the victims of the authoritarian regime in Minsk and those who have taken refuge in Lithuania.
“It is regrettable that the president has not heeded both the call of the leader of democratic Belarus, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and the well-balanced position of the Lithuanian parliament. I want to believe that the Seimas will stick to its position,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said after Nausėda’s veto.
At least 71 votes are needed to override a presidential veto in the Seimas.
Under the president’s proposal, Lithuania would not accept applications for temporary residence permits from both Russian and Belarusian citizens for a year, except in cases mediated by a government-authorised institution or when those citizens already have a visa or residence permit in Lithuania or another EU country.
Moreover, just like Russians, Belarusians entering Lithuania via the EU’s external border would be subject to additional individual in-depth checks regarding the threat their arrival might pose to national security, public order, public policy, internal security, public health, or international relations.
This restriction would not apply to persons with a residence permit to live in EU and Schengen countries, visa holders, diplomats, people entering for humanitarian reasons, as well as employees of transport companies.
Under the president’s proposal, Russians and Belarusians without Lithuanian residence permits would be unable to purchase real estate in Lithuania for a year.
Nausėda also proposes adding an additional sanction to the law. Russian and Belarusian citizens convicted by courts for violating international sanctions or restrictive measures would be considered a threat to national security, public order, and human health.
According to the President’s Office, this would make it easier to revoke national visas and residence permits issued to such persons and facilitate their expulsion.
In addition to the above-mentioned national sanctions, Russians and Belarusians will not be able to bring Ukrainian hryvnias in and out of Lithuania from the beginning of May until May 2024, and their applications for electronic resident status and Lithuanian visas will not be accepted, unless the Foreign Ministry mediates in such cases.
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