The head of the Lithuanian National Security Department, Darius Jauniskis, confirmed Thursday that Russian journalist and TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak is on Lithuanian territory partly because she has an Israeli passport.
According to Jauniskis, the agreements between Lithuania and Israel allow citizens with Israeli passports to enter Lithuania without a visa and to stay in the country for up to 90 days.
Likewise, the senior Lithuanian official stressed that the authorities have no reports warning that Sobchak’s stay in Lithuania could pose a «threat» but that, in case there were, «certain measures would have been taken accordingly».
In the same vein, the Presidency’s chief advisor, Kestudis Budrys, has stated that Russians with citizenship of another country can enter Lithuania as long as the security services assess whether they constitute a threat, the daily ‘Lietuvos Rytas’ reports.
As reported on Wednesday, Sobchak has fled Russia for Lithuania via Belarus. The home of the journalist, daughter of former St. Petersburg mayor Anatoli Sobchak, had been raided the same day in a possible extortion case.
Although there were doubts as to whether Sobchak had entered Lithuania through the Belarusian border, the aforementioned Lithuanian newspaper has shared a video showing the journalist crossing into the country through a Belarusian border crossing.
