On Friday, Lithuania's Migration Department put Natasha Korolyova and Khabib Sharipov on the list of persons who are barred from coming to Lithuania. They will not be able to do so until January 21, 2027.
The public broadcaster LRT reports that Laurynas Kasciunas, chairman of Lithuania's parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense, and another committee member turned to the Foreign Ministry last week over these performers.
Sharipov's concert in Vilnius, which had to take place on Sunday night, was cancelled.
"We received a letter that the person is not welcome in Lithuania. The argument is the concert for children in Sevastopol. We were notified today," Marek Gyrnovic, a spokesman for the concert organizers, said.
In his words, the singer learnt that he was not welcome in Lithuania when he was already on his way in Helsinki and planned to board a plane to Vilnius.
"He went through passport checks and he just could not get on the plane," Gurnovic said.
Kasciunas says concert organizers should evaluate the geopolitical situation as well before inviting any performers.
"(…) we are probably minutes from direct army action against our friend Ukraine. Such concerts are in fact a misunderstanding. We wished that there was no need for any bans and safeguards from the state side, for such decisions to be based on organizers' awareness," he said.
Earlier, for the same reasons, Lithuania also blacklisted Russian singers Oleg Gazmanov, Grigory Lepsveridze and Philip Kirkorov. The latter appealed the decision with Lithuanian courts and eventually lost the case.