MPs to vote on stripping people of Lithuanian citizenship for supporting aggressors

VILNIUS – Lithuanian lawmakers will on Friday vote on amendments to the Law on Citizenship that would strip persons of Lithuanian citizenship they received by means of exception, if they support aggressors.

The bill states that a person who has been granted Lithuanian citizenship by means of exception might lose it, if their actions pose threat to the State of Lithuania's security and interests, if they support a state that poses threat to the security of Lithuania and other countries in the region, allies, or if they do damage to Lithuania's reputation.

"The bill has been drafted in response to the current situation surrounding Russia's war in Ukraine and the threat to Lithuania and the whole region," MP Dalia Asanaviciute, a member of the ruling conservative Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats and one of the initiators of the bill said earlier.

Asanaviciute admitted that the amendment was drafted in response to the high-profile case of ice dancers Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas over the summer when they took part in a show in Sochi, Russia, in August, organized by Tatyana Navka, the wife of the Russian president's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

The changes would only apply to people who have been granted Lithuanian citizenship by means of exception, and there are now over 800 such people. As these people are citizens of also other countries in most cases, they would not be left without any citizenship if they lost Lithuanian citizenship.