Olga Karach, a Belarusian activist who lives in Lithuania, cooperated with the Russian intelligence services, according to Lithuania’s State Security Department (VSD).
Last week, Karach, head of the Nash Dom NGO (Our House) nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, was deemed a threat to national security and denied asylum in Lithuania.
“According to VSD data, the Belarusian opposition activist Karach, who lives in Lithuania, cooperated with the Russian intelligence services,” the VSD document, seen by BNS, reads.
It says that Karach visited Russian territory between 2015 and 2019 to meet with Russian intelligence officers. According to VSD, Karach also communicated with them through impersonal means.
Karach allegedly passed on documents to persons working in Russian intelligence and provided them with information about the representatives of the Belarusian regime and opposition.
According to VSD, she sought the support of the Russian authorities for her political activities in Belarus and has discussed her possible political commitments to Russia with representatives of the Russian intelligence services.
“Representatives of the Russian intelligence services took care of Karach’s image in Lithuania and abroad, advised her on activities in the public sphere, and instructed her on how to minimise the risks,” the document says.
It states that the Russian intelligence services retain an interest in using Karach for intelligence and influence purposes in Lithuania and abroad, therefore, “she poses a threat to the security of the Lithuanian state”.
Denies the accussations
Karach said on Monday that Lithuanian intelligence should verify the information when making accusations.
“I’m very grateful to Lithuania for rescuing my children because the Belarusian KGB tried to kidnap my children to blackmail me, and Lithuania rescued me and my children. Now, I feel resentment and anger,” she told BNS.
“I can unequivocally say that there has been no cooperation and there could not have been any,” she added.
According to her, she last visited Russia in October 2019 to attend a conference. In March 2020, she fled Belarus for Lithuania and has not visited Russia or her home country since, she said.
The Belarusian activist claimed that she has never asked for financial support from Russia and has never communicated with Russian intelligence officials.
“There were no meetings with Russian intelligence officials. I did attend various conferences in Russia, but I’m not aware of any meetings with intelligence officials. Of course, there were various people there, but how could I know that they are not cooperating with the KGB,” Karach said.
According to the head of Nash Dom, her temporary residence permit in Lithuania expires in two weeks. She did not rule out the possibility that it might not be renewed.
Karach has been receiving residence permits in Lithuania since 2014 and claims she lived between Lithuania and Belarus until spring 2020, when she moved to Vilnius. She applied for asylum in Lithuania in 2022.
She said the VSD’s motives for considering her a threat to national security included her past trips to conferences in Russia and an interview with Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky in 2021.
Nash Dom says it provides humanitarian, psychological, and other assistance to Belarusians both in their homeland and in Lithuania and monitors human rights violations.
The NGO was declared extremist by Minsk in 2022 and added to the “terrorist list” by the Belarusian KGB in 2021.
Will stay on humanitarian grounds
Without commenting on the specific asylum case, Lucija Voišnis, deputy head of the Migration Department, told journalists on Monday that a new residence permit can be issued if it is dangerous for the person, who was denied asylum, to return to the country of origin.
“If it is decided that a person cannot be returned to the country of origin due to certain threats to their life, then the person is allowed to stay in Lithuania, and a temporary residence permit is issued for one year on humanitarian grounds,” the official said.
There is also the possibility of sending the person to any other third country, but both the country and the person have to agree to it, Voišnis noted.
The decision not to grant Karach asylum has not yet entered into force. The Belarusian activist has previously said that she will appeal the decision. She will have asylum status while her case is pending in court, allowing her to stay in Lithuania.
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