Lithuania has revoked 135 resident permits of Russian citizens amid the conflict in Ukraine, according to migration authorities
People wave US, Ukrainian and Lithuanian flags a speech of the US President Joe Biden at the Vilnius University. © AFP / Petras Malukas
Officials in Lithuania – which is a member of both NATO and the EU – are telling the Russians residing in the country to fill out a questionnaire to decide whether they pose a security threat or not, Euronews has reported.
Among other things, Russian citizens are being asked about their attitude towards the conflict in Ukraine, as well as about what country they believe to be the rightful owner of Crimea, the broadcaster, which has seen the form, claimed on Wednesday.
The responses in the questionnaires are then used to decide if a foreigner “poses a threat to state security” or society, which, according to Lithuanian laws, might be grounds for the removal of their residence permit.
According to data from Lithuania’s Migration Department, 38 Russians were kicked out of the Baltic country in 2022 for being deemed a threat, and 97 more have had permits revoked this year so far. It brings the total number of Russian citizens who have lost their Lithuanian permits since the beginning of the conflict to 135.
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Last week, the Lithuanian State Security Department (VSD) announced the expulsion of Russian journalist Vladimir Vodo from the country.
“Taking into account the current geopolitical situation” the journalist became a security risk, the agency told Euronews. He had “disloyal views towards Lithuania, disseminates pro-Russian propaganda in social media and had contacts with Russian and Belarusian intelligence services,” it claimed.
Vodo has been residing in Lithuania since 1989, when it was still part of the Soviet Union. He told News.ru that he’s being ordered to return to Russia, in spite of the fact that he has no source of income or place to stay there. The journalist added that he now wouldn’t be able to take care of his 86-year-old mother, who is a Lithuanian citizen.
In June, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova labeled the Lithuanian government “the main enemy” of Lithuania. She claimed that “a quarter of the Lithuanian population has disappeared over the past 30 years” due to policies pursued by Vilnius. Zakharova noted that the population of Lithuania used to be almost four million after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, but now it does not even meet three million.
