The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has decided to reject a complaint from Russian pop star Philipp Kirkorov against the migration authority’s decision to ban him from entering Lithuania.
The Strasbourg-based court found that Kirkorov’s application was “inadmissible”, according to a press release published by the Court on Thursday.
“Overall, the Court found that the Lithuanian authorities’ assessment, which had been based on the applicant’s statements and behaviour, had not been arbitrary or without basis,” the Court stated.
To substantiate its decision, the ECtHR cited arguments that by regularly giving concerts in Crimea, Kirkorov supported the Russian government’s policy of aggression and that he referred to himself as Vladimir Putin’s “representative on stage”.
According to the Court, the ban on Kirkorov’s entry into Lithuania was not disproportionate in view of national interests, public policy interests and the applicant’s actions.
“The Lithuanian authorities found in particular that he [Kirkorov] was a tool for Russia’s propaganda in states of the former USSR and that, by regularly giving concerts in Crimea, he supported the Russian State’s policy of aggression,” the Court stated.
Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court (LVAT) dismissed the Russian pop star’s appeal against the entry ban in the autumn of 2021. In the ruling, the court acknowledged that Kirkorov’s actions posed a threat to national security.
Kirkorov was blacklisted in Lithuania at the Foreign Ministry’s request in January 2021.
Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis then said that the well-known performer, during his multiple visits to the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula, “deliberately denied the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and thus indirectly justified the aggressive actions of the Russian Federation”.
Kirkorov is a Bulgarian and Russian national.
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