Lithuanian MPs have initiated the process of stripping ice dancer Margarita Drobiazko of her Lithuanian citizenship as she continues to perform in Russia, LNK TV reported on Tuesday.
Russian-born Drobiazko was granted Lithuanian citizenship in 1993 so she could represent the country in international sporting events alongside her Lithuanian partner and husband Povilas Vanagas.
The pair represented Lithuania at five Olympic Games and ten international championships. In 2000, Drobiazko and Vanagas received a state award, the Order of the Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania, 5th degree. The award was taken away from them last August.
Drobiazko and Vanagas received widespread condemnation in Lithuania for performing in Sochi last summer, in a show hosted by Tatyana Navka, the wife of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Lithuanian MPs have asked the Interior Ministry to look into revoking Drobiazko’s citizenship under new legislative amendments passed in March. The legislation allows taking away Lithuanian citizenship from naturalised dual citizens who received Lithuanian citizenship by way of exception if they “endanger through their actions the security interests of Lithuania or its allies and thus brings the country into disrepute”.
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The Interior Ministry, for its part, should refer the matter to the Citizenship Affairs Commission, which will make a recommendation to President Gitanas Nausėda, who will then take the final decision.
“We hoped that there would be no such precedents [...] after the adoption of the law,” said MP Dalia Asanaviciute.
The initiative to strip Drobiazko of her Lithuanian citizenship comes amid social media posts showing that “cooperation with the Kremlin’s agents continues”, according to her.
MP Virgilijus Alekna commented that “Lithuania certainly does not want to have people who support the aggressor country and try to justify its actions”.
Lilija Vanagienė, the president of the Lithuanian Skating Federation and Drobiazko’s mother-in-law, expressed her regret at the initiative, saying that Lithuania quickly forgot what she and her husband-partner Vanagas have done for the country.
“The fact that we are hosting the European [figure skating] championships in Lithuania [...] today is partly thanks to their results achieved over so many years,” she said.
Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen commented on Wednesday morning that the parliament was willing to take away Drobiazko’s citizenship.
“The initiative has been around and has been talked about for quite a long time now, so we seem to have reached the final phase of this decision,” she told the Žiniu Radijas radio station.
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