Belarusians

The Seimas on Thursday voted to pass legislation extending national sanctions on citizens of Russia and Belarus for another year and tightening the checks of Belarusians arriving to the country.

The Migration Department plans to screen 18,000-20,000 citizens of Belarus who had moved to Lithuania prior to 2022, when restrictions were imposed due to Russia’s war against Ukraine and the role of Belarus in it.

Fewer Belarusians arrived in Lithuania in recent months and one of the reasons behind this is tighter restrictions and changing priorities of Lithuanian employers, says Director of the Migration Department Evelina Gudzinskaitė.

Almost a third of Lithuanian residents support the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow individual Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the Paris Olympics as neutrals, a poll commissioned by the LRT public broadcaster finds.

On Wednesday night, in Vilnius train station, two Belarusians got off the transit train travelling from Kaliningrad to Saint Petersburg via Lithuania and Belarus.

Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė believes that discussions are needed before deciding whether identical sanctions should apply on Belarusian and Russian citizens. According to her, potential political and economic ramifications should be considered.

Despite attempts by the Lukashenka regime to set us against each other, we stand together in defense of freedom and democracy from authoritarian aggression.

Julia Mickiewicz – a Belarusian activist, co-founder of the Feminist group within the Coordination Council in Belarus – had to leave her country 2 years ago. Together with the organisation for non-formal organisation for which she works, Julia relocated to Lithuania. Julia tells about life in immigr...

Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė says her ministry has already drafted amendments to the law on foreigners’ legal status to enable a mechanism for issuing a foreigner’s passport to opponents of Alexander Lukashenko’s regime only.

Seimas Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen says no political group in the Seimas favours the president’s proposal to tighten restrictions for Belarusian nationals, making them equal to the ones imposed on Russian citizens.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is critical of the idea of Poland and the Baltic States of possible closure of borders with Belarus. She says open borders are vital in order for Belarusians to flee from the Alexander Lukashenko regime.

Representatives of the international centre for civil initiatives Our House (Nash Dom), Belarus & Lithuania urge to distinguish Belarusians citizens fleeing from the Lukashenko regime from Russians and not to impose identical restrictions on them.

Restrictions on Belarusian citizens arriving to Lithuania may be tightened if agencies responsible for national security see a need for this, says MEP Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, leader of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP).

The presence of several thousand Wagner private military company’s mercenaries in Belarus intimidates neighbouring countries, which consider stricter policies for incoming Belarusian citizens, says Speaker of the Seimas Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen says. Yet she stresses that Lithuania must continue su...

On Wednesday evening, the third anniversary of rigged Belarusian presidential elections and subsequent protests was marked in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius. Activists took part in a march against war, military aggression and repressions in Russia and Belarus.

More than a thousand Belarusian and Russian citizens have been recognised as posing a threat to Lithuania’s national security and have been banned from entering the country since the end-autumn last year, the Migration Department said.

Lithuania’s security measures in place are sufficient, says President Gitanas Nausėda in response to reports of a convoy of the Wagner private military company recently spotted in Belarus.

Lithuania has revoked 2,905 residence permits of Russian and Belarusian citizens since the start of the war in Ukraine until 14 July this year, the Migration Department told 15min news website on Wednesday.

In an interview to LNK TV on Monday, President Gitanas Nausėda reiterated his standpoint that restrictions on Russian and Belarusian citizens must be identical. He reminded about a recent mutiny by private military company Wagner in Russia and about media reports that the group was relocating to Bel...

Лидер белорусской оппозиции, экс-кандидат в президенты Беларуси Светлана Тихановская выдвинута на Нобелевскую премию мира 2022 года, сообщил ее представитель Франак Вячорка в пятницу, 28 января.