On April 17, the Lithuanian parliament tightened and extended sanctions against Russian and Belarusian citizens for another year. Under the new measures, Russian nationals who travel to Belarus or Russia more than once every three months will lose their right to stay in Lithuania.
However, the parliament stopped short of imposing the same measure on Belarusian nationals.
The proposal sought to align the treatment of Russian and Belarusian citizens by refusing to accept Belarusian citizens’ applications for residence permits if they do not hold a valid visa. This measure currently only applies to Russian nationals.
Some parliamentarians opposed this, arguing that Belarusian citizens should not be treated the same as Russians.
“Let me point out that the number of Belarusian citizens living and working in Lithuania is steadily declining, so again, the scale of the problem isn’t so great that it couldn’t be dealt with by other means, or this whole situation couldn’t be dealt with in other ways,” Liberal MP Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen said.
The proposal also called for revoking residence permits already granted to Russian and Belarusian citizens if they traveled to their home countries more than once within three calendar months.
During the final vote, lawmakers dropped this restriction for Belarusian citizens but approved it for Russian nationals.
This means that people holding Russian passports will lose their residence permits in Lithuania if they travel to Russia or Belarus more than once within three months without an objective reason.
“We have really become a haven for Belarusian democrats, and we can be proud of that, but unfortunately, the processes have already taken a different shape,” said Laurynas Kasciunas, leader of the opposition conservatives and one of the initiators of the stricter sanctions.
“We now have a lot of economic migration, and with economic migration come certain security risks. The regimes of Belarus and the Russian Federation, using the same methods against our country, can recruit or otherwise influence their citizens and create serious counterintelligence threats for us,” he added.
On April 17, the parliament essentially returned to the government’s original proposal and adopted it.
Lithuania’s intelligence services had asked politicians to tighten entry restrictions on Belarusian citizens, saying they could not screen all new arrivals.
“Colleagues, you acted very recklessly, and when an unpleasant incident occurs, you must remember this vote, because with this vote you are simply dismissing the opinion and urgent warnings of our intelligence services,” said conservative MP Audronius Azubalis.
Social Democrat Remigijus Motuzas, chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, pointed out that under the Law on International Sanctions, only the government could propose new restrictive measures.
Lithuania first passed a law in 2023 under which it stopped accepting Schengen and national visa applications from Russian and Belarusian citizens, except when the process was mediated by the Foreign Ministry.
Meanwhile, only those Russian nationals who hold a valid Schengen or national visa, as well as an existing residence permit in Lithuania or another EU member state, can apply for a residence permit in the country.
Belarusian and Russian nationals are also barred from bringing or taking Ukrainian hryvnias across the border, while the import of agricultural products and feed originating from Russia or Belarus is banned.
The current law bars Russian citizens without residence permits in Lithuania from purchasing real estate in the country. (LRT)