The ice dancer Margarita Drobiazko, who risks losing her Lithuanian citizenship due to performances in Russia, says she is not involved in Moscow’s propaganda and claims that she is spreading “the light of culture and kindness”.
Drobiazko lives in Russia but has Lithuanian citizenship and represented the country in international competitions with her Lithuanian spouse Povilas Vanagas. The Lithuanian parliament passed a law allowing to strip Drobiazko of the Lithuanian citizenship following reports that the couple continued performing in Russia after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The lawmakers argued that they thus participated in Russian propaganda campaigns and represented a threat to Lithuania’s national security.
“What is happening now between Russia and Ukraine is very painful. It is a tragedy for millions of people and families. Russia is my father’s homeland, Ukraine is my mother’s homeland. There are relatives and close people everywhere who are suffering and whose suffering fills my heart every day,” Drobiazko said in an open letter sent in response to an official invitation to attend a meeting of Lithuania’s Citizenship Commission, which will decide on whether to strip her of her Lithuanian citizenship.
“I sincerely believe that people on both sides of the conflict need emotional support to avoid slipping into fierce hatred of each other, whether it is justified or propaganda-driven,” the ice dancer said.
The letter with Drobiazko’s position was forwarded by Rasa Micachiene, the long-time director of the show Flaming Ice.
‘We bring the light of culture and kindness’
In late July, Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė turned to President Gitanas Nausėda regarding the revocation of Drobiazko’s Lithuanian citizenship that she had been granted by means of exception in 1993.
Before the president can take such a decision, the Citizenship Commission, chaired by the President’s chief legal adviser, will issue a recommendation.
The Migration Department says Drobiazko is breaking her oath to Lithuania and bringing the country into disrepute by cooperating with a hostile regime.
The department pointed to Drobiazko’s close professional and personal ties with Tatyana Navka, the wife of Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
Drobiazko, meawhile, claims she is not involved in Russian propaganda.
“I am not involved in what one person called ‘propaganda’. Together with my husband, my ice partner and selfless Lithuanian patriot Povilas, we are bringing the light of culture and kindness as much as we can,” she said.
“I am accused of not expressing my political position publicly, but under the Lithuanian Constitution, do I not have the right not to express my position if I cannot, do not want to or am not ready to?” she added.
Further reading
‘No one will erase our merits’
Last year, President Gitanas Nausėda stripped Drobiazko and her husband Povilas Vanagas of the Lithuanian state awards they had previously received for their achievements.
“Having taken away the awards that Povilas and I had received for this and even the passport, no-one will erase our merits from the history of Lithuania or the love from the hearts of the audience,” the ice dancer said.
Drobiazko stressed she was not a politician and did not intend to make political judgments.
“Let the politicians do politics and let the people of Lithuania judge how they are doing. The country where I was born and grew up, where I studied and skated, where together with Povilas, under the guidance of Russia’s best coaches, I prepared for five Olympic Games, twelve World and twelve European Championships to promote Lithuania, which entrusted me with the honour of its sport, has now been declared a hostile country,” the athlete wrote.
“We have been regular participants in ice shows in Russia since 2007. It is my historical homeland. As in all these 17 years, there have been and are no political manifests in our activities,” she noted.
The ice dancer said she understood that most people would consider her actions wrong.
“They have the right to do so. They have every right to say so. And many will agree. But no-one has the right, moral or otherwise, to force me to take a radical position based on hatred, or to force me to repent of what I do honestly, professionally, and only for the sake of the good and the peace in the souls of the people I come into contact with,” Drobiazko said.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
