No Chechnya recognition issue on Lithuania's foreign policy agenda – parlt speaker

  • 2022-10-19
  • BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS - The issue of recognition of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is not on Lithuania's foreign policy agenda, Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen said after Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday recognized Chechnya as "temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation".

"The principle of self-determination of nations is enshrined in international documents, it is in place and we respect it. As far as this particular issue is concerned, it's not on Lithuania's foreign policy agenda," she told reporters at the Seimas on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, 287 members of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada votes in favor of a resolution recognizing the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as "temporarily occupied by he Russian Federation".

Russian forces have been suppressing the independence movement in Muslim Chechnya since 1994. In the 1990s, Russia waged two wars against Chechen separatists seeking independence.