An employee of the Migration Department has concealed her Russian citizenship and lost both her Lithuanian passport and her job, the department announced on Friday.
“After the department’s Corruption Prevention and Internal Investigations Division collected indisputable evidence, the woman lost her Lithuanian citizenship and was immediately dismissed from her position,” the Migration Department said in a press release.
According to the statement, at the beginning of July, an analysis of the flow of frequent travellers from Lithuania to Russia or Belarus and back revealed that one of such travellers was an employee of the Migration Department working in Klaipėda.
It turned out that the woman had reported her departures to Russia to her workplace far fewer times than she had actually crossed the border, and the Migration Department’s Corruption Prevention and Internal Investigations Division started to investigate the circumstances.
During the investigation, the woman admitted that she had acquired Russian citizenship at the beginning of 2022 without informing the Migration Department. It also emerged that she was not entitled to multiple citizenship.
As a result, the Migration Department initiated a procedure for the loss of Lithuanian citizenship. After the woman lost her Lithuanian passport, she was immediately dismissed from her job at the Migration Department. She has worked at the department for just over a year and had no previous convictions.
The woman is subject to administrative proceedings for failing to notify the acquisition of citizenship of another country and could face a fine of between 300 and 850 euros.
According to the data of the Migration Department, almost 69,000 Lithuanians have legal citizenship of another country and have reported it in accordance with the established procedure.
Around 12,400 people legally hold Lithuanian and Russian citizenship, over 10,000 persons hold Lithuanian and Israeli citizenship, and 8,500 persons hold Lithuanian and US citizenship. Around 4,000 persons hold both Lithuanian and Belarusian citizenship.
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