Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė has formally asked President Gitanas Nausėda to strip Yuri Kudimov, a Russian businessman, of his Lithuanian citizenship granted to him by way of exception.
The move follows the recommendation from the Migration Department which has summarised the information provided by all the responsible authorities and concluded that Kudimov is engaged in activities that are incompatible with Lithuania’s national security interests, the ministry said on Monday.
According to the State Security Department (VSD), Kudimov obtained Lithuanian citizenship in 1998 by concealing personal information, including the fact that he worked as a KGB agent of the Soviet Union.
Kudimov has been involved in the management of Russian state-controlled enterprises, as well as schemes of Russian funding of election campaigns in Western countries. Moreover, he still maintains contacts with influential persons in Russia with links to Russian intelligence services.
According to the VSD, by holding a Lithuanian passport and being able to visit Lithuania and the Schengen area, Kudimov enables Russian institutions to carry out intelligence and influence operations against the interests of Lithuania, posing a threat to the country’s national security.
According to the LRT sources, when Kudimov arrived in Lithuania in 1997, he was looking to start a waste management business, but later abandoned his plans.
On December 16 of the same year, he wrote to the then Lithuanian President Algirdas Brazauskas asking for citizenship of Lithuania granted by way of exception, which he received a little over a month later.
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