The presidential veto and the proposal to impose the same restrictions on Russian and Belarusian citizens is not right, Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen says, adding that it runs against Lithuania's established stance towards the Belarusian opposition.
After the parliament decided on Tuesday to reconsider the national sanctions bill, Čmilytė-Nielsen said Lithuania should not send "mixed signals" to the Belarusian opposition during the debate on the scope of sanctions.
"The presidential veto is aimed at what he says is a violation of the principle of equal treatment because Russians and Belarusians are treated differently,” the Seimas speaker told the Žinių Radijas radio on Wednesday.
“But I would disagree as Lithuania's position towards the Belarusian opposition and our consistent policy has been unchanged for years, and it would be very important not to send mixed signals to the Belarusian opposition," she added.
According to Čmilytė-Nielsen, the law has sparked "a lot of discussions" in the Seimas and the version of the law adopted by the Seimas, which includes fewer restrictions for Belarusians than for Russians, is "the result of compromises".
She also pointed out that there was "no major doubt" on this point in the Seimas amid a clear distinction between Russia, which is actively waging war against Ukraine, and the Minsk regime that "does not force the Belarusian people to take an active part in the hostilities".
"Therefore, it is not very accurate to talk about some violation of equal rights. We should also take into account the fact that, judging from the data we have, [...[ the support for the war is high among the population, whereas we have a completely different situation in Belarus,” Čmilytė-Nielsen said.
“We must do everything we can when demanding sanctions against [Alexander] Lukashenko and his regime to single out the Belarusian people as people who need to be supported as much as possible in their difficult situation," the Seimas speaker said.
On Tuesday, Lithuanian lawmakers agreed to reconsider the bill on national sanctions. The Seimas plans to vote on the presidential veto on Thursday.
Further reading
The Lithuanian parliament adopted the Law on Restrictive Measures in Response to Military Aggression against Ukraine in early April, imposing lighter sanctions on Belarusians than on Russian citizens. The law calls for four sanctions to be applied temporarily, until early May 2024, to both Russian and Belarusian citizens, and another three to Russian citizens only.
Nausėda vetoed the law, arguing that Russian and Belarusian citizens should be subject to the same sanctions over their countries' military aggression against Ukraine.
Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, head of the conservative ruling Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats political group in the Seimas, said on Tuesday the ruling block would seek to override the presidential veto.
A Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who lives in Vilnius, has asked for lighter restrictions for Belarusians.
According to the Migration Department, almost 49,000 Belarusian citizens lived in Lithuania at the start of this year. Most of them fled repression by the Lukashenko regime after the 2020 post-election mass demonstrations.
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