Vilnius mayor asks agencies to assess Russian rapper Morgenstern's threat

VILNIUS - Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas has asked Lithuania's State Security Department and police to assess whether Russian rapper Alisher Morgenstern poses a threat to national security, as the artist plans to perform in Lithuania following a favourable court ruling.

In April, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania upheld the rapper's appeal and overturned a Migration Department decision that had banned Morgenstern from entering the country for 10 years.

The court ruled that the Migration Department had unjustifiably relied on information provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the primary basis for assessing the threat to state security.

Meanwhile, the State Security Department, which is legally mandated to perform such assessments, provided no conclusion. Consequently, the court found that the entry ban was based on data from an incompetent authority.

Benkunskas announced on Monday that Morgenstern is planning a concert in Vilnius on October 31 and that he had turned to the security services to assess potential risks.

"In order to close this matter, I have appealed to the State Security Department and the police with a request to evaluate possible risks regarding threats to our national security and public order," Benkunskas said. He added that if such assessments are provided, the Foreign and Interior Ministries should move to block the rapper's entry.

The mayor emphasised that while a lower administrative court had previously found the ban justified, the Supreme Administrative Court overturned it due to "procedural violations."

In lifting the ban, the court also noted that Morgenstern's inclusion on the blacklists of other states, public-source information, past statements or creative work did not in themselves prove a threat to Lithuanian national security.

Morgenstern has previously expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin on several occasions. However, following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he criticised Russian military actions in his songs. In May 2022, the rapper was designated a "foreign agent" in Russia.