Lithuanian parents who abducted children linked to anti-state movement

The family who kidnapped their children after they were taken into care are linked to the so-called movement of sovereign citizens, Lithuania’s intelligence service, the State Security Department (VSD), said on Wednesday.

"The so-called sovereigns, who claim to be the parents of the children they abducted from the temporary custody of the state, are guided by an anti-state extremist ideology that denies the legitimacy of the state," the VSD said in a Facebook post.

The children were taken into foster care in June after they were found not attending school. The father previously said he had renounced his Lithuanian citizenship, calling himself a "free, living person". He also said that his family did not have any identity documents.

In July, the parents took the children from the care home, later abandoning the car used in the escape in Tytuvėnai, western Lithuania. The police are continuing the search, including abroad.

In Lithuania, several hundred people identify themselves as sovereigns, and a few dozen of them consider themselves citizens of the USSR, the VSD said.

What is the sovereign citizens movement in Lithuania?

The movement grew during the pandemic, calling on people to resist quarantine restrictions. Formally, the group was an offshoot of the Krishna Consciousness Movement – Vaishnavism, popularly known as Krishnaites.

Alfredas Buiko, a researcher at Vilnius University and a religious studies scholar, said in 2021 that the newly-sprung movement was not connected with Russia.

"The sovereign, or free man, sovereign citizen variant first emerged 50 years ago in the United States. Some US citizens started to claim that they are not American citizens but individual people and therefore subject to international maritime law,” he said.

According to the VSD, there are more than 300,000 "sovereigns" in the US as well as around 20,000 in Germany clustered into official and unofficial groups.

The so-called sovereigns in Lithuania have adopted pro-Kremlin and Belarus narratives, according to the VSD.

In reference to the now-banned Good Neighbourhood Forum organisation, the Lithuanian intelligence said the movement includes people who travelled to Moscow and Minsk, where they also met with Alexander Lukashenko.

Although parents of the abducted children used language common to followers of the sovereign citizens' movement, it's unclear whether they identified themselves as part of one of the official or unofficial groups.