Threat to national security, high vigilance in Lithuania Konstantin Eggert talks to Caliber.Az

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, a total of 1,164 citizens of Russia and Belarus have been recognized as a threat to national security in Lithuania. On this basis, they were either not issued or didn’t manage to extend residence permits or national visas, as reported by the Lithuanian migration department.

All these citizens, as specified in the department, had to fill out a special questionnaire prior to applying for a residence permit or national visa, which, among other things, asked them to indicate their attitude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as reported by the Russian opposition channel Current time.

“After evaluating all public and non-public information, it was revealed that 254 Russians and 910 Belarusians pose a threat to national security”, clarified the Lithuanian migration department.

The Lithuanian authorities developed a special questionnaire for citizens from Russia and Belarus in November 2022, in which, in addition to the information necessary to obtain a residence permit in the country, it was necessary to indicate their attitude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This questionnaire has become one of the main documents based on which the Lithuanian Migration Department can decide on the issuance of these documents.

What kind of threat to the security of Lithuania could those citizens of the Russian Federation and Belarus pose, who had apparently avoided condemning the Russian aggression against Ukraine when entering the Baltic country? Could this include specially deployed people who, at some point, could initiate activities against the state in Lithuania, start provocations, attacks, or even terrorist acts? Most likely those are the types of concerns?

The Russian political analyst and Deutsche Welle columnist, Konstantin Eggert who is located in Vilnius, notes in his comment on this subject to Caliber.Az, that the Lithuanian State Security Service traditionally works very effectively and at the same precisely.

“It makes very good use of the unified information resource of the NATO allies and therefore filters out those who could potentially pose a danger to the Lithuanian state quite quickly and well. In this sense, Lithuanians probably have the greatest experience and accuracy in selecting the objects with which they work - those who are not allowed into the country or those who are expelled from Lithuania.

If we compare this with neighbouring Latvia, for example, where 6,000 Russian citizens are predicted to be denied residence permits, the figure of more than 1,000 could seem small. And this is despite the fact that there is a larger population in Lithuania”, said the expert.

It is important to understand one thing here, says Eggert, namely that Lithuania is the only one of the three Baltic countries where the Russian-speaking minority makes up a very small percentage of the population, and in fact, it is somewhat easier for state security agencies to assess threats precisely because the potential pool of such people is smaller.

“I have no doubt that all these plans will be realized. At the same time, it must be recognized that, since Lithuania is a state governed by the rule of law, people will have the opportunity to appeal such decisions through the courts and there is no guarantee that the court will not decide in some cases that people should, for example, not be deprived of a residence permit.

At the same time, I would like to point out that in Lithuania representatives of civil society and several political parties will not allow a situation in which some kind of universal, total restrictions are imposed against the citizens of Russia and Belarus. An attempt, initiated by a Seimas member a few months ago, to restrict their access to citizenship and permanent residence permits, for example, has failed in parliament partially also because there were many external negative comments, including, for example, from former members of the constitutional court. In my opinion, Lithuania therefore very successfully combines a high level of vigilance of the special services on the one hand and on the other, a commitment to the principles of a democratic state based on the rule of law”, concluded the political analyst.